


Liminals

by Sitriga



Series: Terpsichore [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: A lot of Greek Mythology stuff I guess, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Deities, F/F, Muse!Emily, Witches, also Birb!Emily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2020-07-08 03:02:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 93,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19862437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sitriga/pseuds/Sitriga
Summary: Two years before, a muse came into their lives. Amélie Lacroix was a suicidal ballerina in grief for her lover and career at the time; Lena Oxton, an artist with a part time job at a coffee shop, a tragic past and some serious self-loathing issues.Two years later, they were a sucessful ballet master without a shadow and an independent artist with a part time job as a time-fixer for a primordial god/titan(depending on who you asked). They were both doing very well in their unassuming but awesome house in King's Row, but they were missing something: the muse, their girlfriend, taken away by her kind for her outrageous handling of mortal matters - in their point of view, at least.Two years and they could never find her, the piano in the living room a silent reminder.Now Emily was back, though - not a woman but a tiny bird, her punishment revealed to be eternity as a feeble robin redbreast. As new weirdly magical events start happening all around them and the spirit plane with their own tensions, how can they manage to bring her back to what she was?





	1. Smooth Criminals

The opening door broke the silence in the room. An imposing woman went in, the overcoat fluttering as she walked around the table and took a seat. She was black, tall and had piercing dark eyes. Her white box-braided hair was tied back in a ponytail and her clothes didn’t have a drop of water in them, despite just having walked in pouring rain. An ID plate affixed to a chest pocket had her name on it: _Cpt. Sojourn_. She sat impeccably straight on the metal chair and looked at each of the three individuals currently at the other side of the table, a cautious curiosity in her dark eyes.

“So, I go after an elusive ghost and come back with a woman with a fractal field of energy, a second woman with a fake shadow and an apparently sentient bird with layer after layer of spells tied to their core. That is _not_ an usual work day.” She made a pause. “Can you please state your names and occupations?”

The two women and the bird looked at each other briefly. They couldn’t be more different from each other: one woman was tall, had raven black hair, golden eyes, and the impeccable posture of a noble; the other was of a regular height, with short and chaotic brown hair, big brown eyes and a very expressive face; and the bird was, well, a regular robin redbreast, small and round, currently held in a metal cage.

The tall woman started. “I’m Amélie Guillard, a ballet master for the Royal Opera Ballet.”

Her voice was calm and velvety, but her eyes were tense, almost angry. Captain Sojourn would assume she was outraged at being in a questioning room in a police district. 

“Lena Oxton, freelance visual artist.”

“Oxton?” Captain Sojourn repeated, cocking her head a bit. “It sounds familiar. Are you famous?”

She shrugged. “Well, if you count ‘beaten-to-almost-death-and-appearing-in-the-newspapers-for-it’ famous, then maybe.”

“Oh, that case.” Sojourn frowned slightly, but offered no further commentary. Instead she gestured for the bird to go.

The bird just stared at her, and she stared back. After ten seconds of that Lena decided it was best to clarify it: “She can’t talk, ma’am. She’s just a bird. Can you take her out of the cage? She won’t be flying away without us.”

Sojourn barely spared her a glance before going back to the previous focus. “If she was just a bird, Miss Oxton, she’d be flying away the moment I opened the cage, and she wouldn’t have this many spells on her.” 

“They’re not for that.” Amélie countered.

“So tell me what they’re for, then. I’m sure it’s reasonable.” The sarcasm in her words didn’t reach her expression.

“Is this breach of our personal lives legal, captain? I thought you had to defer to the current case.” Amélie crossed her legs, staring at Sojourn from above. Lena looked at her companion like she didn't think acting that way wasn't really a good idea, and she was right. An entitled, clueless suspect always amused Sojourn, though.

She relaxed her posture a bit on the chair and opened a smile for the first time that night. “Do you really think it’s only one case against you here, sweetie? Let me enumerate: Trespassing a high risk area; trespassing a restricted LMPD-issued area, irresponsible manipulation of magic--”

“Wait a moment there!--” Lena started, but Sojourn raised her voice above hers.

“--with impending risk to the surrounding area; destruction of property and ah, of course, unregistered innate and/or acquired magic or magical conditions...”

Lena was stiff in her chair, eyes wide and fixed on her hands. Amélie looked like she was clenching her teeth. The two of them were handcuffed to the metal table, but Sojourn was sure they wouldn’t be moving even if they were free, in this case.

“So you see, Miss Guillard, I have all the right to ask about it based on the current accusations.”

“We don’t know what most of the spells are for.” Lena said, quietly. “We don’t even know how many of them there are. We just know they’re trapping her like that.”

“Lena!”

“What? She’s going to arrest us and we did nothing wrong, might as well tell her.”

“You should listen to your friend, Miss Guillard. She’s smart.”

“Girlfriend.” Amélie replied, sharply.

For the first time, captain Sojourn was taken aback. “I wasn’t aware, I apologize. Now, you say she’s trapped by the spells, miss Oxton?” She leaned forward, interested.

“Yeah... It’s complicated. Emily’s our girlfriend too. She disappeared two years ago and only returned now, in the form of a bird.” Lena looked towards the cage again. “Listen, can you please take her out of there? It’s unnerving.”

Sojourn raised an eyebrow and reached out for the cage. She brought it closer and unlocked it, opened the door and waited. The bird - Emily? - looked at her and simply walked out in a relaxed pace, sitting outside like it was trained to do so. Out of the blue a song started playing on the room, even though there was no visible speaker:

_Freedom! (I won't let you down)_

_Freedom! (I will not give you up)_

_Freedom! (Have some faith in the sound)_

_You've gotta give for what you take (It's the one good thing that I've got)_

_Freedom! (I won't let you down)_

_Freedom! (So please don't give me up)_

_Freedom! ('Cause I would really, really love to stick around)_

_You've gotta give for what you take_

As quickly as it came, it went.

Sojourn was startled, looking around in utter confusion. “What the hell was that?”

“ _We don’t have a clue!”_ A voice came from the same place, fairly obviously a hidden speaker.

If none of the police officers there or behind the glass wall (there were always officers behind them listening to testimony, any bad policial series could tell you that) knew what was happening, Lena and Amélie were very aware in turn.

“George Michael, luv?” Lena laughed, and it was as genuine as children’s laughter.

Amélie had a smile and raised eyebrows.

Sojourn saw that, of course. She turned to them for answers. “Explain!”

A different song boomed in the room.

_Magic, it's a kind of magic_

_It's a kind of magic_

_Magic, magic, magic, magic_

_Magic, ha ha ha ha it's magic_

_Ha ha_

_Yeah, yeah_

_It's a kind of magic_

Lena could only laugh more frantically as Freddie Mercury sang and Sojourn was startled again. As the sound died down, the officers on the other side made sure to say in rather squalish voices they really weren’t doing any of that.

“It’s Emily, captain.” Amélie finally explained. “She’s answering your question.”

Sojourn stared and blinked for a moment, trying to make sense out of it “With songs? In a magic-suppressing room?”

“It’s what she does.” It was time for Amélie to open an amused smile. “Lena, make sure you don’t puke from laughter, yes?”

“M-my belly…!” She half laughed, half whimpered.

Emily, the robin, chirped in a lively way and nodded to Sojourn.

That _really_ wasn’t the usual work day.

“You three have a lot of explaining to do.” Sojourn managed to say, still taken by surprise. “And no more songs.”

Lena and Amélie looked at each other expectantly. A new song came.

_Deception_

_Disgrace_

_Evil as plain as the scar on his face_

_Deception (An outrage!)_

_Disgrace (For shame!)_

_He asked for trouble the moment he came_

“Called it!” Lena shouted to Amélie, who shook her head.  
  
“I’m going to put you back in the cage if you keep this up.” Sojourn pointed to Emily. _I can’t believe I’m threatening a bird._

The song stopped.

“Okay, go back to explaining, miss Oxton.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Your girlfriend, Emily, is that right?” The bird nodded. _Hell._ “ She used to be human, then she disappeared and came back as a bird. Did you report this to the police? How do you even know this bird is her? No offense.” She added quickly.

Hesitation. Again Lena and Amélie looked at each other. This time, it was Amélie who spoke.

“Emily could run this sort of interference before, with the songs. It wasn’t all that difficult to figure things out when she did it as a bird, and she can type with her beak, given a proper computer keyboard.”

“It takes some time and looks tiring, though.” Lena added.

Emily walked towards Lena’s cuffed hands and rubbed her head against them, sitting where both Amélie and Lena could pet her.

“Right." Sojourn had seen weirder things in her career, true, but they usually had to do with more offensive magic and curses. This case was piquing her curiosity in a way that didn't happen all that often. "And did you report her disappearance?” 

This time, there was no answer, which could be considered an answer on itself: they clearly didn’t. That would put them in further trouble than anticipated.

Sojourn sighed and crossed her hands on the table, giving them a tired, appraising look. "You do know this hesitation doesn't look good for you, don't you?" 

"It's--" Lena started, but stoppe abruptly as she clutched her chest and inhaled sharply. Her eyes went wide and she lost all strength, falling to the side and being caught by a startled Amélie.

"Lena!"

Sojourn got up in a reflex, reaching out for them. "What's wrong?!"

As if on cue, the whole room shook. Sojourn had to lean on the table to keep herself up.

"Did you… Urgh." Lena slowly tried to right herself on the chair, but even her words were weak. "What did you do to that machine?"

"Machine?" Sojourn repeated.

Lena took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times. Color was returning to her face and her words were getting louder than a whisper, but that didn't mean Amélie let go of her. "The one you took from my hands."

"It's being analyzed as we speak, of course."

"Bloody hell, I told you to destroy that thing!" She groaned. "It's activating again!"

About one hour before, Lena, Amélie and Emily were in a warehouse containing a myriad of clandestine magical machines, mostly trinkets and baubles, not unlike the flashing toys meant to attract kids. Only a handful of them had real power and one had malfunctioned and tore through time, a rift big enough it resulted in Khronos pulling Lena in her sleep to tell her to take care of the nuisance. 

It had been hell to get into the warehouse at first, so much Amélie and Emily, who were originally only giving Lena a ride and waiting in the car, joined her efforts to somehow get in. If Emily hadn’t flown up to the small windows up the wall and warned them through songs about danger on their phones, Amélie and Lena might’ve been hit with a pile of brass machines taller than them as soon as they unlocked the door, for example. After that they had to climb up and enter through a window.

The inside of the warehouse was wrecked. The time-tearing machine had formed an orbital field around it, all sorts of scrap metal, screws, coils and devices spun around it endlessly while everything else was repulsed to the walls. Lena had urged her girls to go back, but there was no way they’d leave her alone in a place like that, if only to ensure she wouldn’t be dragged and trapped in a different dimension like it seemed to happen when they weren’t looking.

It took a good while and some nasty bruises for Lena to be able to blink to the source-machine and smack it enough for the field - and subsequently, the tear in time - to stop. She asked Amélie to keep an eye on the machine and started doing the thing Khronos left her alive for, mending the rift with her time powers.

She had just finished doing that when the magic police stormed the place, rifles in hand and Sojourn as their head. Lena knew enough to be sure Khronos probably stalled them enough for her to do the job, but he didn’t care enough to ensure her safety after that. Asshole. She still shouted for the officers the machine had to be destroyed or it would start tearing things back, but she didn’t have a way to know if they did so as they took the thing away and handcuffed her.

Well, her advice wasn’t followed, in the end.

“How do you know that?” Sojourn asked, then directed herself to the officers on the other side of the wall. “Can you verify this for me, guys?”

“I feel the time warping in my guts, captain.” Lena said, annoyed. “We gotta do something before it blows a hole in it in the middle of your district, take me to it!”

She scoffed. “There’s no way I’m releasing you.”

“Then handcuff me to you, I don’t know--”

 _“Captain Sojourn, the guys at the lab confirmed there are strange measurements coming from said machine.”_ One of the officers replied through the hidden speaker.

“Lena is telling the truth.” Amélie spoke, harsh but collected. “Let her do her job or it’ll probably end very badly.”

Sojourn bit her lip and inhaled. There was clearly an internal battle going on in her head. “And why can you, of all people, put an end to this?”

The room shook again, more violently this time. Emily even took flight, and Lena gasped and clutched at her breast again. This time a pair of concentric blue neon circles appeared in front of her chest, spinning slowly. Her whole body blinked on the chair for a moment, like there were two of her in different stages of cowering from pain. It was back to normal in a heartbeat. She went limp on Amélie’s arms again.

“Because she did it at the warehouse, captain, and you should know this by now.” Amélie snarled. “Now if you don’t take her to see to it, she’s going to have these episodes more and more and I’ll see to it that when I’m out of these handcuffs I’ll personally skin you!”

Both Emily and Lena looked towards Amélie in surprise. Sojourn scoffed, rolled her eyes and produced a key from a pocket.

“If you threaten me again I’m having you put into a cell, miss Guillard.” She opened Lena’s handcuffs with a click and went to her, offering a hand. “Now show me what you can do.”  


\--  


When they arrived at the lab, they found the lab guys crowding the observation room, eyes locked on the machine on the other side of the reinforced glass, tension clear in their expressions. The machine, an amalgam of cables, brass, runes and lights the size of a shoebox, was floating high from the ground, casting a blue aura far around it. Delicate lab instruments and vials were orbiting it, spinning fast up and down.

“We’ve tried all sorts of dispelling, Captain” A man said, turning to face Sojourn. “Nothing happened.”

“Of course, you can’t dispel time.” Lena frowned, shaking her head. “You gotta unravel and mend it.”

“And you are?” The man replied, more curious than annoyed.

“The person who's going to stop this mess, but only if we get moving, oh, this _century?_ ” She side-eyed Sojourn, who rolled her eyes. They were handcuffed to each other. Lena couldn’t do whatever she wanted.

“Open the door, Brenson. We’re going in.”

“But captain, we weren’t able to penetrate the field--”

“You weren’t, but this girl here?” She pointed to Lena with her head. “She can. Now open it.”

The man nodded and straightened his glasses, started pressing some buttons with practiced ease and pulled a lever: A thick metal door to their left hissed and clicked, decompressing. Sojourn lead the way and pushed it open slowly, as it was very heavy, and made way for Lena to go in as well.

The first thing that hit them was the heavy wind, then the humming static; it was almost like the machine was pulsing on itself. Sojourn closed the door again and they heard it sealing shut behind them. There was nowhere to go but there.

“Okay captain, I’ll need you to uncuff us and hold tight on me.” Lena said, dead serious.

Sojourn did as she told, set them free and passed her arms around her waist. “What are you--”

Her words were cut short as Lena blinked forward, her time-bending speed colliding with the orbital field of the machine. Thankfully it was still small enough it wasn’t the most exhausting task to stick an arm through it and grab a coil. A jolt of energy ran through their bodies and suddenly everything was shiny, blue and full of motion around it. Sojourn gasped, surprised, and Lena held her arms on her waist.

“Don’t let go, luv. You wouldn’t like being lost here.”

“Where are we?”

“Time.” she said, simply. “Gotta mend it from the inside.”

“ _Who_ _are you?_ ” Sojourn looked around and couldn’t make sense of anything. That was crazy.

“I told you already: Lena Oxton, freelance visual artist. I’m also ex-RAF and a time-oddity, if you really want to know.” She looked back at Sojourn and grinned. “It’s literally my job to fix messes like these, and now I have all the time in the world to tell you all about me, Amé and Em without people eavesdropping!”  


\--

The opening door broke the silence in the room. A bubbly woman with windswept hair walked in and made a beeline to her girlfriends, kissing the dancer and ruffling the bird’s feathers affectionately. An imposing woman walked in after her, closing the door on her wake. She looked troubled, her eyes wide with things she’d seen. She went to a chair on the opposite side of the table, sat there and leaned forward, not a word uttered.

“Did you solve the problem, _chérie?_ ” Amélie asked, leaning her head on Lena’s shoulder as she sat down.

“Yep! Captain Sojourn ordered the machine destroyed. They’re going to study it in pieces.” She giggled adorably.

“And you’re not in handcuffs.”

“That’s because we had a chat, me and the captain. It really sorted things out!”

Amélie raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Sojourn, who was still looking at them with that distant and surprised expression. “What did she do?”

“Oi! Believe me, will ya?”

Sojourn creased her brow further and took a moment to find the words. That wasn’t easy at all, in the end. “She took me inside time.” She made a pause. “And told me about the three of you.”

“Oh. Everything?” Amélie’s posture relaxed. Now she looked a bit concerned for Sojourn.

“Enough for her to understand.” Lena replied.

“Mm.” She nodded.

Emily walked up to Sojourn and stared at her. A song started on the hidden speaker, but not a booming tune this time - it was loud enough to hear, but not to startle. 

_Annie, are you ok?_

_So, Annie are you ok?_

_Are you ok, Annie?_

_Annie, are you ok?_

_So, Annie are you ok?_

_Are you ok, Annie?_

_Annie, are you ok?_

_So, Annie are you ok?_

_Are you ok, Annie?_

_You've been hit by_

_You've been hit by_

_A smooth criminal_

Sojourn focused on her for the first time. “I’m… Processing. But thanks.”

“What are you going to do about us?” Amélie eyed Sojourn with veiled expectancy. 

She looked back at Amélie and took a deep breath, that soon turned into a sigh.

“I’d like to make a deal.” She looked very conflicted about it, though. “I let you go free now, provided that whenever the LMPD feels the need to call for your expertise, you oblige.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “That sounds good. What’s the catch?”

“I want the three of you registered with your respective powers and conditions.”

Lena scoffed, but it was Amélie who spoke. “And how do you suggest we register Emily?”

“How about we discuss this further in my office?” She slid the keys through the table and Lena picked them up. It was time for all of them to be out of the handcuffs.  


\--  


Captain Sojourn sat in her office, and the silence was welcome after all the talking. The trio of the most improbable girlfriends had just exited after a lengthy discussion of terms for a deal, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t surprised by their whole story still. A muse trapped as a bird for acting too much as a human, a ballerina who lost her shadow to an entity in exchange for the hope of saving her girlfriend, and an unbelievably cheery artist who happened to have a piece of time itself embedded in her soul… Lena Oxton was the ghost who’d been dissipating all the time anomalies the LMPD couldn’t for two year. It would be a crime to have her arrested and lose that, especially when she seemed to be the only one who could do it. 

That deal would do good for both of them. Amélie Guillard just had a simple glamour cast on her, a fake shadow not to alert people to her lack of a real one. It wasn’t anything to be concerned about. Emily the muse, however… There hadn’t been a time Sojourn had dealt with spirits and it didn’t spell trouble. She could understand all the hesitation from the mortal women about bringing her up to the discussion, now - how would they register a spirit in the system when she theoretically didn’t exist in the concept of that plane, and when ghosts were registered by their local of haunting and level of menace? How could they even explain the concepts of why and how she was cursed, when those things were done out of their view, by laws they didn’t know about?

Sojourn should’ve insisted they reported Emily as she was, but she couldn’t. Instead she suggested they came again the next day and she’d help them register her as a sentient familiar of unknown origin, left in their care. It would enable them to pursue the nature of some of the spells on her on legal terms, and it wouldn’t raise too many questions. They were happy with it. She was, as well.

She sighed. That definitely wasn’t an usual day.

She picked up the receiver and dialed some numbers.

“Hello? Amari, come to my office. I need to talk to you for a second.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! It's been a while, partly because my writing powers were greatly diminished by work and mental stuff. Life is hard, adulting, harder X)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! This new story is proving itself a hell of a challenge because well, _Emily is a bird now, Harold!_ But I get to imagine the songs she'd use in every situation and giggle with myself, so it's great.
> 
> Speaking of songs, these are the one present in this chapter:
> 
> Freedom, by George Michael  
> A Kind of Magic, by Queen  
> One of Us, The Lion King 2 OST  
> Smooth Criminal, Michael Jackson
> 
> See you next time o/


	2. I Got Life

Ana poured black tea in a couple of cups that looked like relics from the last century, porcelain hand-painted with flowers and gold threads. She extended Lena one, trying to read her expression; there was restraint and a bit of shame there. Something happened, but she wasn’t sure what. “So, what brings you here this fine morning?”

“I came to show you this.” Lena searched her pockets and took out a neatly folded paper she opened and extended to Ana. She waited for her to pick it up and turned her attention to the tea - it smelled delicious...

Ana took a moment to read the paper, her brow furrowing further with each word. Lena took a sip of her tea and grimaced; she’d forgotten Ana didn’t take it with sugar. She reached for it and started pouring spoon after spoon.

“So you finally registered your power.” Ana said, finally. “What happened?”

“Well…” Lena blushed slightly and stopped mixing the liquid. How would she tell Ana? It was embarrassing, especially because her protector was the one who’d advised her not to do so. “We were kind of… Arrested.”

“Arrested?” Ana repeated, a surprised and harsh edge to her voice.

“Yeah, like, me and the girls had just mended a time rift in a warehouse and this huuuge task force of the magic police appeared out of nowhere! They arrested us for breaching restricted dangerous space - except it wasn’t dangerous anymore because the rift that should be there was just closed. Then they took us to their captain and I had no choice but to explain to her what was going on. Kinda.”

Lena spoke fast when she was flustered, but Ana was used to it. She hummed, took a long sip of her tea and folded Lena’s document back before speaking again. “How much did you explain?”

“Enough for her to understand, really, but it wasn’t in front of anyone! I took her to the Timestream first.”

“ _What?_ ”

“It’s a long story -- they activated a thing that made a rift inside the precinct and I took her with me to-- anyway!” She shook her head, as if to focus. “Sojourn knows enough, and she was really puzzled by it! We made a deal: we registered and she’d call me whenever they needed me to go and close some time rifts. All worked out in the end!”

“Sojourn? Hm.” Ana opened a smile, the tension in her shoulders gone. “She’s a good woman.”

“Do you know her?” Lena tilted her head just like a confused puppy.

“Of course, she’s the captain of the precinct my daughter works in.” Ana’s tone denoted it was obvious, but it wasn’t really. “Besides, she might’ve arrested me a couple of times.”

Lena would’ve scoffed at such a casual remark if it was said by anyone else, but if you knew Ana for half a day there were high chances you learnt she was arrested and released in sequence so many times it might as well be a common occurrence in her life. She knew too well how to walk the thin line of “offensive but not enough to make a case against”, and it killed Fareeha and her sense of justice every time.

“Speaking of Fareeha, Sojourn called her in her office when we were talking. Turns out she knew she was covering for us…”  


\--

Captain Sojourn’s office was unremarkable as far as offices went. Neutral colors, organizers and books filled the shelves on the right wall, some awards, certifications and medals were displayed on a shelf behind her. She was reading a report when they walked in, and she lifted her eyes slowly to watch the newcomers.

“I’m very glad you’re here and registered. Part of me insisted on believing you’d run away, but I’m pleased it was wrong. Please have a seat.” Sojourn motioned towards the leather chairs in front of her desk.

“We have a life here and we did nothing wrong.” Amélie replied while she sat down, eyes locked on Sojourn. It was never wise to confront a police captain like that, but she didn't mind - her tone was perfectly cordial, despite the sharpness under it. She was a perfect lady and she knew how to get away with that sort of thing. “Why did you call us here, captain?”

A knock on the door put a halt on the conversation, to Lena's relief. She wanted to lay low and get out of there as soon as possible, the more they stood there the bigger the chances of Amélie getting in a fight over something and putting them in trouble. It wasn't nice to spend a night in a cell, she unfortunately knew.

“Right on time.” Sojourn smirked, unaware of possible memories of Lena's teenage years going on in the woman's head. “Come in!”

“You called, cap-- Oh.”

Fareeha stood on the door, realization starting to show on as she looked from Sojourn to Lena, Amélie and Emily.

Lena, on the other hand, looked very surprised. “Fareeha? I didn’t know you worked in this district!” 

“Hello officer.” Sojourn nodded. “Answering your question, Miss Guillard, I called you here to tell you I’m assigning officer Amari to keep an eye on you, to make sure you all behave. Miss Oxton, you’ll inform her when you go after a time anomaly, and wait for her to escort you to said destination.”

Amélie scoffed. “So we need a babysitter now? No offense Fareeha.”

“Uh, none taken.” She was clearly uncomfortable, but doing her best to remain collected and professional, as always. You could show a photo of her on flashcards and people would know it’d mean professionalism.

“That you do, Miss Guillard. We’re going to do things by the law here, and we can’t allow civilians like you on those dangerous sites alone. Besides I don’t think that’ll be a problem, as you’ve been acquainted for years now, huh?” Sojourn gave them the smug look of someone who knew more than they should, crossing her hands on the table and pausing for effect.

Lena’s jaw dropped. “How do you know that?”

Fareeha was equally surprised, so much her impeccable military posture was broken. “Ma’am, with all due respect--”

“I know Amari, your reasoning is very clear to me already.” Sojourn raised a hand.

“She was just trying to--” Lena started, but Sojornu effectively silenced her with a glare.

“As I just said, I _know_ that. Amari is loyal and right, even when justice means more than abiding by a set of rules. Why do you think I gave her this job?”

Fareeha was blushing, she didn’t know what to do in that situation. What did she mean, why she gave her this job? What did Sojourn know? She was clearly in trouble, but how bad was it?

“That said, she’s not very good at lying. I knew from the start she was protecting the people in the time-locked lab two years ago but hell, was it difficult to get to you three.”

“Let me get this straight: you’ve been looking for us since that episode” Amélie asked, slowly. “and you couldn’t get to Lena sooner? She’s definitely not subtle.”

It was painfully clear to see what she was talking about: Lena, her wild hair with a bird on top, oversized light blue hoodie and white and orange sneakers, was just the opposite of what one would call subtle.

Still, she looked mildly offended. “ _Oi!_ ”

“You leave a ribbon of blue light behind when you blink, _chérie_ . Really, that’s _not_ subtle.”

Sojourn looked amused with the banter. She started fiddling with some paperwork on the side of the table. “Well, this very light ribbon ruined photos whenever we tried to take them, and she was quite apt at disappearing before we could arrive at the anomalies sites.”

Lena let out an approving grunt and stuck her tongue out for Amélie.

“Regardless, I need you all to sign these papers stating you know about this assignment and agree to having regular reports delivered to Amari. The terms are all on the paper, please take your time to read them.”

Lena picked up the pen and realized something. “And how will Emily sign?” 

Sojourn couldn’t help but chuckle at that. It was a very valid point, but the weirdness of the situation made it hilarious for her. “You’re her legal owners now. You can sign for her.”

Of course the queen of unsolicited soundtracks couldn’t let this go by without commentary. Lena’s phone blasted a song at full volume:

_My little girl, drive anywhere_

_Do what you want, I don't care_

_Tonight I'm in the hands of fate_

_I hand myself over on a plate now_

_Oh, little girl, there are times when I feel_

_I'd rather not be the one behind the wheel_

_Come, pull my strings_

_Watch me move, I do anything, please_

As expected, Lena jumped from her seat, Amélie raised an eyebrow and Sojourn opened her mouth and remained like that, unable to find her words for a moment; Then Amélie chuckled and Sojourn facepalmed hard.

“How very sexual, _chérie._ ” Amélie turned to Emily, who chirped happily.

Sojourn groaned. “For god’s sake…!”

\--  


“They played Fari like a fool!” Ana let out a delighted laugh. “She can’t be happy about that.”

“You should’ve seen it… But it was all good afterwards, Sojourn told her to relax because she’d proven how good of a cop and a person she was, and she was willing to keep this out of the records if she’d babysit us around.”

“She’s definitely still feeling bad about it, though. I know my daughter.” She took another sip of her tea. “And how did you register without issue? There’s no one around with a power like yours; the government should be all over you, and Emily’s simply undefinable.”

That was something they knew since Emily came back, a month before. Ana rushed to Lena’s house and performed some rituals hoping to identify the things binding her to the bird form, but there was an insanely strong spell diverting all attempts of identification; it was as if a fog clouded her whole existence from a magical point of view.

Now they knew it wasn’t different with magic-detecting devices: the officers tried everything at their disposal in the precinct, and the only reading they got was of a dense clouding spell over her. It was a bummer for the trio, who half expected a slightly different result - anything that helped them comprehend what was done to Emily was a step closer to going after a way to undo it, and they got nothing in the end.

They did learn some other interesting stuff, though: the officers thought Emily was an unbound familiar named Robin (she chose the name herself and told her girlfriends before by showing a series of Batman & Robin cartoons on the TV) and her creator had put such a powerful spell on her to prevent rival wizards from finding out his methods of creation. It was apparently common practice between high level magic users, and a pain in the ass. The good news was that if there was anything dangerous within her it would’ve been triggered by their scanning machines, so it was safe for them to be around little Robin. It wasn’t common for familiars to be unbound, though. Something must’ve happened to her creator before, and she probably chose them as her new family because they had magic and a loving, stable relationship.

The officers didn’t know Emily wasn’t really a familiar, but that last statement surely made Amélie and Lena smug as hell. 

“That’s Captain Sojourn’s doing. She told me to register as what you saw on the paper, someone able to see and be easily affected by the strands of time. It’s not a lie and a handful of people have it. Emily was registered as a familiar.”

Ana scratched her chin. “That’s clever. I’d rather this didn’t happen, though.’

Lena shrugged. “But it did, and our official cards are arriving in a couple of days, Fareeha will bring them to us. At least we’ll be able to bring Em everywhere, now that she’ll have proper identification.”

Ana opened a small smile. It was so typical of Lena to try to find good in every situation… “Don’t forget your tea, Lena.” She immediately turned to the cup and thanked Ana for the tip, taking a big swig. “What about Amélie? Did they question her lack of a proper shadow?”

“Oh yeah, today was one of the days it was there faintly, coming and going. She told them she simply woke up one day and her shadow started doing that.”

“Did they believe her?” Ana frowned.

“There was a guy with a tentacle coming out of his forehead on the desk beside us - they’ve seen enough weird stuff to believe it happened as stupidly as that, I think. They also couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary and the glamour was cosmetic, so they didn’t make a fuzz out of it.”

She nodded. “As always, I don’t know if you’re very lucky or very unlucky.”

“Maybe both, in turns.”

“Maybe. Is Amélie okay, though? Did the prodding do anything?”

“As far as I know everything’s fine, why?”

“Just checking.”

“Well, if you want to talk to her, she’s at work with Emily…”

\--  


An uplifting piano tune filled the room as the dancers executed precise steps to the rhythm. One could say they were perfect by the way they moved in sync, but to the woman slowly circling the group and watching their every step with trained eyes, there was always something to improve.

The newest ballet from the company was doing fairly well as far as popularity went, but it was only a month since the opening night: Amélie Guillard knew they had room to improve the execution of the diverse coreographies with a lot of practice and performance nights, as it was usual. Dance was a dinamic art, after all.

“One - two - three - four - watch your arm, Ashley - seven - eight” She worked on the first solo of the second act with the soloists, the four of them performing quite well that late morning. They were at a stage where her words were no more a command but a reminder to support the dancers, the choreography already absorbed by muscular memory. She loved how well the whole thing flowed now, as opposed to the first days of rehearsal. “Forward - forward - _pique_ \- _servellete -_ That’s it, _magnifique!_ ”

They kept going on like they fluttered in the air, every movement fluid and graceful. Amélie would give tips and remark on the desired expression in certain steps, the proper mood and silhouette, the details separating a good from an outstanding performance. Seeing the dancers apply those and improve was something that gave her a lot of joy. 

She was learning to go easier on herself. She found she didn’t need to be the epitome of perfection anymore, she was happy to help others in their stride for perfection. It was a very rewarding experience.

“We’re done for today, girls. You did good, congratulations.”

The four women were tired, a bit disheveled and covered in sweat, but the smiles on their faces were wide and proud. With three of them, anyway - Ashley seemed a bit absentminded. It had been like this for a couple of days already, Amélie had been noticing it. As the women gathered their things and chatted, ready to leave, she reached out for her with a serene smile. “A word, if I may?”

“Is there something wrong, Amélie?” She looked worried.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a little chat.” Amélie pointed to the side with her head and offered a hand. 

About ten minutes later Ashley was trying to suppress the crying as she told Amélie about how her sister fainted suddenly at work and was then diagnosed with an aneurysm. It was terrible for sure, but Amélie made a good job of comforting her with the fact the doctors would soon perform an emergency surgery and there was a good chance she’d come out of it with no permanent damage.

“I’m sorry to bother you with that…” Ashley sobbed, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand for what could’ve been the tenth time already.

“Nonsense, I was the one who asked, and I want you to know you have someone available here if you need to talk about it.”

She looked out the huge windows, to the buildings outside. “I should just put myself together right now. There’s nothing I can do about this and I have to be brave for Helen… But the whole thing keeps coming back to my mind…”

“It’s natural, _chérie,_ it was all too sudden and scary.” Amélie put a hand over her arm, a compassionate note in her voice. 

“Yeah, but I still have work to do...”

“Life’s more than work _._ Think about what would be better for you and your sister, I’m sure HR will understand if you take a couple of days off for the aftermath of her surgery.”

Ashley seemed to consider the suggestion, still looking out the window. The following pause made Amélie think maybe it would be best to leave her alone at last, but when she was going to make a move Ashley spoke again.

“I think I’ll talk to them about it. Thank you, Amélie.”

“It’s okay. We’ll get your sister a seat on the first rows when the season starts, I’m sure.”

Ashley chuckled. “She’d love that.”

“So I’ll personally talk to Marie to arrange it.” Amélie smiled.

Ashley then hugged her lightly. “Again, thank you…” She let go and wiped her tears, even though her hand was quite wet with them already. “ D-did you see that bird is here again? It only comes when you’re around, maybe it loves you!” She giggled, but it mixed with crying and it all came out strangled. 

“Oh?” Amélie looked out the window and immediately saw it: the little robin redbreast was sitting on the window sill, looking straight at her. “She does love me.”

“She?” Ashley blinked.

“I like to think it’s a she.” Amélie winked to the bird, away from Ashley’s sight.

“Well, that’s fair… I have to go now. There’s this whole mess to take care of” She gestured towards her face.

“Alright. Keep me updated!”

She nodded and went out of the room, closing the door on her wake.

With the room empty, Amélie went to the window panel besides the one where the bird was sitting and opened it. It didn’t move a lot, but it was enough for Emily to get in and land on her shoulder.

“People are talking, chérie. ‘The bird who follows Miss Guillard around’... Huh.” She ruffled the feathers on her head. “You’re going to start a local legend.”

Emily rubbed her head against Amélie’s neck. The stereo on room came to life with a lot of static at first, but settled quite easily on a song this time:

_This girl is on fire_

_This girl is on fire_

_She's walking on fire_

_This girl is on fire_

Amélie rolled her eyes and groaned, but had a smile on. “Such a dork.”

A change of song:

_I know you want me (want me)_

_You know I want cha (want cha)_

_I know you want me_

_You know I want cha (want cha)_

“Okay, that’s enough!” She chuckled. “True, but enough.”

As ordered, the music went away in a heartbeat. Amélie sagged her shoulders and picked up her overcoat, making a move to put it on. “I have to go. Will you stay and watch the next class? I understand if you won’t, it must not be very comfortable sitting outside.” 

Emily didn’t answer her. Instead, she deliberately hid inside the back of the overcoat, a small lump on the start of Amélie’s back.

“Emily, no-- you’re going to get stuck!

She chirped twice in succession: it meant a no. Amélie sighed and took out the coat, but it was too late - Emily was going into her shirt now. 

“Really?!” She didn’t know if she should groan or laugh at how silly that whole thing was. She tried to reach out and take her out of there, but every time she tried Emily would wriggle away like a slippery eel.“I have to work…!”

A knock on the door caught her attention. A small black woman with glasses and a part confused, part concerned expression stared at her, and she didn’t know how much she’d seen.

“Is everything alright, Miss Guillard?”

“Yes! Yes.” Amélie straightened herself, trying to look as cool and collected as always. It helped that Emily stood still on her back, as well. “Some pesky thing ended up in my shirt, but I believe I was able to bat it away. Do I know you, _chérie?_ ”   
  
“I started two days ago, staff assistant.” She straightened her glasses, giving her a shy smile.”The dancers in room 7 sent me to check if you were heading their way.”

Oh, of course. They’d been introduced before, it just slipped Amélie’s mind with all the events of the past day… “I was giving some extra advice to one of the soloists. Just give me a moment, yes? I’ll be there in a second.”

“Great, I’ll be sure to tell them!” The woman nodded and walked out.

Amélie waited a moment before letting herself relax again.

“You heard her.” She whispered.

Slowly, Emily came out of her shirt and flew to her extended hand. She looked a bit crestfallen, and it was impossible not to soften at the sight. People said dogs were expressive? Well, birds could be just as much, if you knew how to look... Especially if said birds weren’t birds at all.

“We’ll be together at home.” Amélie brought her close and gave her a brief kiss. 

Emily looked at her for a moment still and took flight, heading outside. She made a point of not looking back as she flew away, even though Amélie would probably be watching.

It wasn’t just a matter of being together, or the right time to do it.

She ascended into the sky and let the air draft take her, hovering above the near buildings almost by instinct. Being a bird, an animal really, was all about it: surviving, eating, mating, reproducing. Flying. She could be overtaken by the instincts and life would be so much easier, but that was not what she wanted. She wanted to tell Amélie how proud she was of her now, giving advice she wouldn’t have followed when they first met; to appear out of nowhere and steal long kisses to make her delightfully flustered, then hop back into the spirit realm as the swift fox she was; to be able to say how much she loved watching the dancers’ reverence for her and her tutoring; She wanted to sit at one of those blasted pianos in the rehearsal rooms, play whatever Amélie asked of her, and watch her dance to her music through the wall of mirrors. 

That was what it was all about: she wanted to really _be_ there, but as a bird she was nothing more than a glorified pet. She was lucky she had a portion of her muse powers under control still, but otherwise she was just so limited, she worried… Well, Kafka came to mind.

How long would they still love her like who she really was, and not what she’d become?  


\--  


“Ana, I think I need some advice.” Lena put her cup away on the center table, looking at her protector with a mix of affliction and anticipation.

“Well, shoot away. You must remember to at least try and follow it, though.” Ana smirked.

“Do you think there’s a way to free Emily from the bird form?”

Ana stopped to consider for a moment. She felt that question creeping around since the day Emily returned, but Lena wasn’t willing to confront it before. It was understandable; she didn’t want to ruin the euphoria of having her girlfriend back after two years of searching and imagining the worst scenarios. Ana was actually surprised she asked it so soon.

“Yes, I’m very confident there is, but it’s definitely not easy or cheap.”

Lena’s expression lit up, her whole body language changing to one of determination. “That’s not a problem, we’ll go to the end of the world if needed!”

“Oh I know that.” She shook her head. “I just hope you’re not as much of an idiot as you were before with the Witch of the Wilds, to be honest.”

Lena shrunk a bit on her seat. “Can’t argue with that.”

“The thing you have to keep in mind, though, is what you’ll do after you free her.” Seeing Lena’s confused expression, she added “Last time I checked, nor you or Amélie could even see spirits.”

The realization siphoned all the excitement out of Lena and replaced it with sadness and worry. It would be the start of a spiral that would take her running back home, hoping Emily was there. They needed to talk about that. Urgently.

\--  


_I ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes_

_Ain't got no money, ain't got no class_

_Ain't got no skirts, ain't got no sweater_

_Ain't got no perfume, ain't got no bed_

_Ain't got no man_

There were times Emily lost control of her powers in this new form, usually when she was feeling too much of a particular thing. It was a lapse that often resulted in a device nearby playing songs annoyingly accurate to her mood, broadcasting her emotions like she was in a weird sort of tv show.

The house cats, Baguette and Poulain - the white Turkish Angora who was completely terrified of Emily at first - were curled up against each other on their owners’ bed, taking a peaceful nap. She was tucked between them, comfortable and warm, but very downcast. She loved the kittens, but she needed a hug from her girlfriends so damn much! Could she get it properly, though? No, of course not - she’d likely be crushed, because she was a fucking bird.

_Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture_

_Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schoolin'_

_Ain't got no love, ain't got no name_

_Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token_

_Ain't got no god_

Of course her feelings would play as a Nina Simone song in the cheap usb radio Lena brought, in that situation. Emily loved her songs, make no mistake, but right now? It was just slapping her in the face more than she could handle.

_Hey, what have I got?_

_Why am I alive, anyway?_

_Yeah, what have I got_

_Nobody can take away?_

_Got my hair, got my head_

_Got my brains, got my ears_

_Got my eyes, got my nose_

_Got my mouth, I got my smile_

She shut down the radio with a violence that sent a loud dissonant note through the speakers, enough to make Baguette jump to her feet.

Emily didn’t have hair or head, brains, ears, eyes - anything mentioned in the song. She wasn’t a person, her nature was that of a merely sentient tool, by the beliefs of her fellow muses. They couldn’t handle her, and took away everything she loved about herself - she was nor a muse or a human now. What was she? _What could she possibly be?_

Downstairs, the front door was unlocked, the jingling of keychains giving away that Lena just arrived. Poulain and Baguette noticed as well, ears up and turned towards the sound, but they didn’t want to go greet her and leave the comfort of a warm bed. Emily, in turn, didn’t want to go because she was miserable and sulking between felines.

Unfortunately (or not), Lena came running into the room looking for her. 

“Em, are you here-- oh there you are!” Her words were urgent, her expression, anxious. She sat on the bed beside the cats and lowered herself as much as she could, half laying down in the process. Poulain looked at her with her regal stare, waiting for her to pet her as she always did. Baguette, always warmer, went straight to her arm and started rubbing against it. “How are you today? Is everything alright? I… I was talking to Ana and she told me something that made me realize we gotta talk, love. And I gotta apologize. Hell, I’m talking all fast again, am I not? I’m gonna- I’m gonna slow down a bit.”

Lena really was talking too fast, something was clearly bothering her. Of course Emily didn’t know where it was coming from, but she expected that would come next in the conversation, so she waited patiently. Lena took a deep breath to center herself and failed, talking her heart out at full speed again..

“I’m sorry.” She started, looking straight at Emily. “When you came back we were so happy and focused in trying to learn as much as we could and how to deal with you being a bird, we never really asked what you think about it. I mean, sure, it was done as a punishment but you’re here now, right? We focused in trying to free you from this and we never actually asked if you wanted it. You must miss being a spirit, right? Even if you’d be gone…”

Her voice failed all of a sudden, and her eyes glinted with tears she was clearly fighting not to shed for a while. Lena was scared, lost and anxious as fuck, and Emily still had her powers to feel it. She hopped out of her spot and flew to the desk, landing on top of the computer monitor. She tugged at her magic to turn the thing on and hovered down to the keyboard, pecking a key lightly.

Lena wiped a tear. “You want to write?” It was a pity eyerolls weren’t at all noticeable as a bird, or Emily would’ve made a scene out of one. “Okay.”

She got up and went to the computer as well, waited for it to boot properly and opened the notepad for her.

It took quite a while for Emily to be able to type what she wanted, as pecking letter by letter in a keyboard wasn’t exactly a breeze, but the message couldn’t be clearer in the end:

_i didnt spend two yrs trying to be myself again and come back to have a sudden desire to fade back to a spirit now. i love being around you, silly._

_that said, i also dont want to be a bird, i want to hold you in my arms. don’t know how, though, and i dont want you getting in trouble trying to reach a miraculous solution for this._

“Trying to be yourself again?” Lena frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

Emily went back to peck-typing.

_Bird body, bird mind._

“Oh love, I’m sorry! That must’ve been awful…”

_I didn’t know better._

“Yeah sure, but I mean afterwards, when you did!” Lena picked Emily up and held her against her chest, one hand supporting and the other over her like a dome of protection. “I know you don’t like us worrying and don’t want to bother us, but we’re going to do what we can to help, okay? We love you. If you wanted to go back to being a spirit it would break my heart but I’d support you, and if you wanted to keep being a bird we’d try to make all the possible modifications to make things as functional as possible. I mean, Amé is rich as fuck, right? I’m sure she could pay someone to make you a talking machine or something.” She giggled. “If we have to find a weird way of allowing you to stay here as a woman, we’ll do it with no complaints attached, together. You know that, right?” 

She did deep inside, but hearing it from Lena’s lips was extremely comforting. Lena didn’t care about how she presented outside, she wanted Emily to be happy whichever form she chose, even if it could end up separating them. She was amazingly kind, and that always reduced Emily’s feelings to a pool of love, affection, and successfully hidden girlish squeaks.

_You're just too good to be true_

_I can't take my eyes off you_

_You'd be like heaven to touch_

_I wanna hold you so much_

_At long last love has arrived_

_And I thank God I'm alive_

_You're just too good to be true_

_Can't take my eyes off you_

Well, not all that hidden anymore...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs, by order of appearance:
> 
> Behind the Wheel - Depeche Mode  
> Girl on Fire - Alicia Keys  
> I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - Pitbull  
> Ain't Got No / I Got Life - Nina Simone  
> Can't Take My Eyes Off You - A lot of people recorded it, but I was thinking of the version by Muse


	3. Arriving Somewhere but not Here

There was a considerable pile of books on the center table, all of them about Greek mythology. Lena sat on a beanbag chair reading yet another volume on it, so focused she barely noticed Emily coming and going, tucking small yellow flowers on her hair. Brigitte and Hana shared a different beanbag, with Hana almost laying down on her girlfriend’s lap.

They’d been at the public library for hours now. It was Friday afternoon, almost evening, and Lena had asked her friends to come and help with her research. It would not be easy or quick to go through a lot of classical Greek myths alone, and maybe they could use something there to narrow the search for a way to make Emily a woman again.

So far they weren’t having a lot of luck. Greeks tended to turn an insane amount of people to animals, they learnt, not return them to their previous forms.

Hana yawned loudly, putting down the book she was reading. It was the third that hour. “I’m bored. Why does everything always end up in murder in these stories?”

“Not just murder.” Lena mumbled, quite annoyed. “They have the awful habit of throwing women around and turning them to monsters, constellations, the whole bloody zoo instead of punishing the men trying to rape and kill them. Ugh.”

“Well, the stories were clearly written by men in a sexist civilization.” Brigitte, as always, tried to be reasonable. “Of course it’s going to be a bizarre male power trip. Just look at their views on the Amazons!”

“You’re so smart, babe...” Hana purred, kissing Brigitte’s cheek.

“How the hell did your higher muses put up with this, Em? They’re all women!” Lena grunted.

Emily flew to the table where Lena could see her and tilted her head a bit. It was a pity she couldn’t talk, because she had  _ a lot _ of opinions on the classic tales… And it would’ve been nice to inform Lena the muses weren’t all female, actually: Urania was non-binary and Euterpe was a trans man, but since the art the mortal world had of them was of an all-female group, that was a sadly common misconception.

Going back to the question at hand, she had a perfect song to convey the general answer to Lena, but it was in a foreign language, she wouldn’t understand it. How could she portray the fact they were still just minor gods, mostly women, and subject to the whims of Zeus? If she was in her right form she wouldn’t have to think much on it, she’d just know. Now, though...

“Oh my god, Pegasus was born out of Medusa’s blood after she was decapitated?” Hana gasped. “What the fuck!”

Emily chirped in that way that was half song, half laughter. Hana was impressed by that only because she hadn’t gotten to Leda and the swan yet - or the golden rain thing… Zeus could be  _ so _ gross.

“Lena, I don’t think we’re going to find what you’re looking for in these books.” Brigitte closed her copy of the myths and put it back on the pile. “The people messing with polymorphing are either witches we don’t want to mingle with, or gods who can be quite unpredictable. That’s not even talking about how easily people end up dead...”

Brigitte’s choice of words was very fortunate, in Emily’s opinion. True to her words, you never knew if a hot-headed god might be listening, ready to strike someone who talks ill of them.

“What do you suggest, then? I don’t think I can get a favor like that by, you know, just asking.” Lena sighed, lowering her book as well.

“Well, you always have to go on a quest of valor or something in games.” Hana said. “Think of  _ Shadow of the Colossus.” _

Lena frowned. “The game where the guy kills the cool nice colossi and gets more and more corrupt until he kills the last one and dies in order to bring the girl back from the dead? It’s a very cool game, but I’d rather not have to do that in real life…”

“It was an example!” She crossed her arms and pouted. “Ugh, fine, take  _ Journey _ instead - there’s absolutely nothing troublesome with that game.”

“I love it, it could only be better if there were tiny cloth cats in it.” Brigitte opened a wide smile at the thought. 

“Babe, your heaven is a cat shelter.” Hana giggled, but Brigitte turned to her with a worried expression.

“No! They don’t have owners in shelters, the poor kittens! My heaven is somewhere all the cats are free, happy and love me.”

“You’re right, my bad. Your heaven is your parents’ house.”

They both giggled at that, and Lena knew it was because Brigitte’s family had four cats and they practically ruled the house, to her father’s despair. She’d joked she’d take Poulain and Baguette there on a vacation more than once, but she never actually went to the place. It probably had to do with the fact it was in Sweden.

“Speaking of which, we should go get ready, right Hana?” Brigitte asked, hopeful. “My parents are arriving soon!”

That Saturday the Lindholms were flying to London to see Brigitte, and she couldn’t be more excited: she organized her often chaotic workshop, cleaned the house, fixed the automatic gate on the garage, brought extra sets of blankets… Her family was coming to visit after a year, all because she was doing so well with her job 3d printing cosplay props (especially armor and weapons, she was becoming a legend on them with her designs) it enabled her to help with the expenses. The family was big, and even though her father was a well-known and respected smith, they didn’t have enough money for a trip like that on their own.

“Right.” Lena shook her head, making some of the flowers fall from her hair, and drawing an angry chirp from Emily. “What? Oh, are these-- you’ve been putting flowers on my hair again, love? That’s cute!”

Emily made a point of picking them up and putting them back in place. Lena brought up the frontal camera in her phone to look at herself and got to the conclusion she looked like a  _ Florence + the Machine _ fan, a hippie or a wood nymph, depending on who you asked. It was perfect, really.

“Hey Brig, can you take a photo for me? I bet Amé will like this.”

“Sure!”  
  


\--

Amélie was finishing a rehearsal when her phone buzzed. She was lucky to be near her purse and done with the teaching when it happened, so she could see the set of photos right away: a close up of Lena with her adorable smile and chaotic hair full of small flowers, no doubt Emily’s work, then a huge blob in front of the camera that resembled a bird head and Lena laughing behind, just partially visible, and a third photo with Lena sticking her tongue and Emily striking a pose with her wings open on top of her head, which made Amélie snort. The dorks…

She wouldn’t have shown the dancers the photos, of course, but there was someone behind her who happened to see them above her shoulder and commented on how cute Lena was on it. Naturally, more people came to see it and soon enough everybody was around Amélie - it helped that Lena made a reputation for herself in the Royal Ballet as the nice, fun lady that befriended everyone, so people actually cared for her. 

Amélie thought it was a bit weird to talk about her girlfriend with her colleagues, but she wouldn’t lose an opportunity to boast about her to anyone, really. She was in the middle of telling them how she was commissioned by a TV channel to paint a mural for a show - she wouldn’t appear more than the 10-something seconds of the time lapse, but it would still be her art showcased throughout the country - when someone pointed out the bird on Lena’s head looked like the one they sometimes saw taking a peek inside when Amélie was around.

“Is that so? How interesting.” She opened a cryptic little smile that could be interpreted as a cynical dismissal, but the dancers knew enough of Amélie to know she was playing the innocent with them just to see how far they’d get.

“Wait, is it the same bird?” One girl asked.

“Is it?” She replied, her smile unchanged.

“Amélie!”

She chuckled and turned her attention towards her things again, very conscious of all the eyes on her. “I think we should empty the room for the next classes, mm?”

There was a sort of collective groan as she picked up her things and headed for the door shamelessly, some more protests from enthusiasts, some giggles... But she said nothing else. She’d talk to Emily about it, but maybe they could do something fun with this brewing legend.

She snickered with herself. Emily would love that.  
  


\--  
  


It didn’t take too long for her to wrap up the work day at the ballet and leave, facing a warm, pretty Saturday afternoon. Walking on a park wouldn’t be a bad idea - but she was starving, so she called Lena as she walked to her car instead.

_ “Hey Amé! Are you out?”  _ Lena picked up the phone with her usual enthusiasm, which always made Amélie open a tiny smile.

“Yes. I’ve seen your pictures, you’re the cutest dork.”

She giggled.  _ “I knew you’d like it!” _

“Me and all of the chorus,  _ chérie _ . They’re also making theories about Emily being the same bird they see around here, and it’s very entertaining.”

_ “Did you hear this, Em?” _ Her voice was turned away for a moment, they were probably on speakerphone. Amélie got to the place where she parked the car and started searching for her keys, all while balancing the phone between her cheek and shoulder. It was a practiced motion.

“Anyway, do you want to go have lunch at Hanzo’s? I’m in dire need of japanese food.” Amélie finally got in the vehicle.

_ “When have I ever declined?” _ Lena giggled again.

“That’s very...”

_ “Amé?” _

Amélie stopped talking because she noticed something adjusting the rearview mirror - something quite fantastic.

“Hang on, there’s something up.” She finally answered, going out of the car to have a better look.

There was a small space between two buildings nearby where a paper cup fell and spilled its dark contents, probably some kind of soda. It would be perfectly common, except after a moment of it spreading on the concrete, it started to make the reverse motion: it went back inside the cup in a perfect mirror of the previous action. The cup stood back on an angle, then started floating up to a substantial height, only to fall and spill the soda again; It was locked in that moment.

"Lena? I think I found a--"

A weird, loud distorted sound was heard from the other side of the call, making Amélie take the phone away from her ear. When it subsided, Lena was speaking again.

“ _ Amé? Amé, are you there?” _

“Yes. This was loud...”

“ _ Boss wants me to have a look at your thing”  _ She giggled. “ _ His timing is the best, huh?” _

Amélie groaned. “You would think a time deity has a good grasp of timing - although that hasn’t stopped  _ you _ from getting late several times only this month.”

_ “You know me, I’m a time-defying wonder.”  _ Lena was cocky and unashamed, something that made Amélie both roll her eyes and smile.  _ “Meet you in front of the Ballet?” _

“Come running.” She replied, their personal inner joke.

_ “For you? Always, babe!” _

It was always flattering to hear that.

\--  
  


“So this is the place?” Lena crouched on the floor between the buildings, looking at the old concrete and some tenacious small planta coming out of the cracks.

There was no sight of the repeating cup - it disappeared in the time it took for Lena to arrive. 

“Yes. It should be at this exact spot…” Amélie tapped her foot on the floor to point the place, sounding a bit annoyed. She didn’t like that one bit - if anything, she made Lena come all the way there for nothing when they could be going for lunch already.

Lena nodded and kept staring at that point for quite a while, biting her lip as she did when she was super focused. At a point she raised her hands hesitantly and touched something beyond the air ever so softly. She ran fingertips through it with reverence, almost a musician testing the strings, and nodded. “I can feel traces of it here, like a scar.” She whispered. “If I pull a bit like this…”

She turned her hand a bit, curved two fingers and pulled back; there was a flash of blue and an image flickered and appeared, the same cup falling and pouring soda on the ground. 

Lena looked from it to Amélie, wriggling her eyebrows in a very suggestive way. She, in turn, crossed her arms and raised a very judgemental eyebrow at her.

“You’re not getting those fingers near me if you’re ripping dimensional chasms with them.”

“No!” Lena was completely gobsmacked by the backfire. “That’s not what I--!”

“ _ Focus,  _ you adorable fool.” Amélie chuckled.

“You’re mean, Amé.” Lena pouted, but soon enough she was poking at the cup like an excited kid. Her fingers passed right through it, so she pushed her whole hand through and grabbed at it, feeling the texture - or rather, the lack of it. “It’s a schrödinger cup!”

“It’s here and not?” Amélie frowned.

“Exactly!” She pointed to the cup with the free hand, and the tip of her fingers were visible wriggling through it. “Remember I told you I’ve been finding those weird, half-anchored things lately? That’s one more of them!” 

She then turned her attention back to it and started fiddling with things inside in that almost performative way from before. It was something Amélie always liked to watch: that calm focus back on her face, the straight posture, her hands playing with time like she could make music out of it… She was beautiful like that, in her element, and Amélie wondered if she knew that.

She started messing with her hair absentmindedly and Lena all but melted into her touch. “Love, this is good.”

“Keep working. By the way, you still have flowers in your hair.”

“Really? How many of those did Em-- Wait. Where’s she?” Lena raised her head and looked around, but no bird was visible. “Em? She was here when we arrived!”

“You’re getting sidetracked. We know what happens when you don’t pay attention to time - I don’t want the restaurant incident all over again.”

“Right!” Lena blushed, embarrassed, then shook it off and focused back on work. “But can you go look for her? Please?”

“She can take care of herself,  _ chérie _ . If she doesn’t come back by the time you’re finished, we’ll search for her together.”

Yeah, Lena knew that. Sometimes she thought Emily could take care of herself better than any of them could, but she was also so tiny she couldn’t help but worry. And what if a muse recognized her? Ana said she was shielded, but…

No. Not the time to think about it, she had to focus.

It didn’t take long for her to finish the job. Like a wound, she had to pull it open to clean and mend the strands of time that weren’t binding together as they should. They’d heal on their own once everything was back on its right place.

Even though it was just the projected image of a cup falling, it bothered Lena that incidents of that sort were only increasing. As she told Amélie, she found at least a dozen - but it took almost four months from the first to the second, while it took only days from the one before and this last one. It was accelerating, she couldn’t find the source and Khronos wasn’t exactly helpful. Take for example what happened earlier, when Lena was talking to Amélie on the phone: she felt that familiar static in her spine and her stomach dropping, and the next thing she knew, Khronos had yanked her right back to the Timestream. He always did that to brief her about the next anomaly she should go after, no matter where she was, the time or what she could be doing (although he was considerate enough to wait for her to get out of the bathroom one time) and she wasn’t even surprised by this anymore. He also didn’t appear physically, opting to send her a live-feed of the glitching paper cup in the alley and Amélie beside it, holding the phone away from her ear. After that, nothing. If she didn’t know generally where Amélie was, she could be searching throughout London for days until her senses picked up the fluctuation in time... That was how helpful Khronos usually was.

“I’m done here.” Lena announced, watching the cup flicker and disappear for the last time with the satisfaction of a job well done. “Any sign of Emily?”

Amélie was looking towards the street. “No… But I have a hunch.” She pointed out with her head.

Lena got up and shook the dust from her knees, sighing. “I hope she’s just stealing berries somewhere.”

She grabbed Amélie’s hand and headed out, but she didn’t take two steps before stopping dead in her tracks, eyes wide. That jolt of electricity in her spine, it meant trouble - time-related trouble.

Before she could do anything a flash of thunder blinded her vision, for a split second she saw disembodied eyes watching, piercing through her soul...

And she was back, gasping for air.

“Amé--!”

This time everything went dark. She was pulled apart, squeezed, disintegrated and reformed in a wooden living room, with the eerie glow of late afternoon in the air. Amélie’s pained gasp beside her made her turn and catch her right before she fell to the floor. They were still holding hands, so it meant Lena dragged her along to wherever they were now. Shit.

“What… Where are we?” Amélie took a hold of herself and looked around. It was a cozy place with a stone fireplace and photos on the wall, but they couldn’t see who was in them. The edges of their vision was blurred, almost monochromatic. It was clear that wasn’t natural.

“Looks like a memory.” Lena frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Whose memory?”

“Exactly.” She poked one of the unviewable portraits. “It’s not even in the same place we were.”

She walked towards the kitchen and Amélie followed, not letting go of her hand. It was one of their base rules: If they ended up somewhere magic or lost in time, they’d never let go of each other. Who knew if they’d get lost otherwise?

The kitchen was small and the furniture old, maybe something out of the 20’s. There was a woman sitting at the table, with hands covering her face. She sobbed weakly, like she’d been doing that for a long time, and didn’t notice their arrival. Lena wasn’t even sure she could, for the matter.

“Why are you crying, love?” She tried.

No response. They were just watching, then. In that situation, she walked around the table and took a better look at a letter open before the woman: it looked official, written by typewriter and everything, but she couldn’t make out the words. They rearranged and blurred when she tried.

“I don’t suppose we can just get out of here, can we?” Amélie didn’t sound very hopeful. She just wanted to go and eat, dammit.

“Lemme check.” Lena sat down on the chair next to the oblivious woman and closed her eyes, squeezing Amélie’s hand for reassurance. A couple of deep breaths and she opened her senses to feel the texture of time around her. It reminded her of dust, creaky floorboards and decaying old manors. 

That memory wasn’t only old, it felt forgotten. But if it was, why didn’t it fade, and what was it doing there in an alley in London?

She had come across memories before. They were always tied to a place that had a significance to someone, making it so that not only people had memories, but places got them ingrained in their metaphorical bones as well. In the early days of figuring out her powers, she walked into a church and had a frightening snippet of a bombing in the Blitz that reduced her to a quivering mess, for example. 

However, she never found a detached memory or one tied to the wrong place, like this one. It was intriguing and worrisome.

Lena tried to reach further into the fabric of time here. Could she reach the string of memories it originally belonged to? Was it still attached? In her mind’s eye she brushed the crumbling pieces of paint away from the walls and widened small gaps in the plaster until she could see a couple of raw bricks. They looked fine, the memory was seemingly untouched.

Then they detached from the wall and into the room, floating. Fissures appeared all over the plaster, big chunks of it fell down, more bricks detached-- the whole thing imploded on her.

  
  


She opened her eyes in the middle of a scream, and Amélie was staring at her with the most scared expression.

They were back in London, in that small space between buildings. The clouds gathering above suggested it might rain very soon.

“W-what…?”

“I don’t know.” Amélie said slowly, likely not to startle her. “We were somehow ejected from there. It hurt, you were screaming… How are you,  _ chérie _ ?”

“I… Yes?” She blinked a couple of times. “That thing blew on me when I poked. It’s… Not normal at all. Ow, my head.”

“Don’t try to think too hard,  _ chérie. _ We should go home.”

“No, I gotta talk to the big boss about this--” Lena tried to sit down but Amélie held her in place.

“You have to rest.” She replied. “You still have some brain damage that needs attention, you won’t go straining yourself travelling through reality this much if I have a say on this.”

“But it’s important!”

“He’s the god of time, he can wait!”

“Actually he’s-- ugh, nevermind.” She crossed her arms and pouted. “I never saw anything like that, Amé, and it’s been almost two years I’m messing with this thing. It was like it was deconstructing itself… What if it ends up causing something bad?”

“We can’t know that and I don’t want you to hurt yourself, Lena. Do this for me, please? Just a couple of hours.” Amélie cupped her cheek, caressing it. Her voice was so soft and worried… Lena couldn’t win, she wouldn’t upset her love like that, it’d break her heart as well.

“Okay…” She sighed. The way Amélie smiled to her was worth it. “Will we order Japanese, then…?”

Amélie’s stomach all but roared at the mention of food, and that made Lena giggle. She finally sat down and picked up her phone to order from the Shimadas’, making jokes about getting the biggest food boat they had for the both of them.

Emily hadn’t returned yet, but they had other things on their minds at the moment.

\--

  
  



	4. Follow Me

The world was full of magic, but it wasn't quite as appealing as before. Technology, regulations and science normalized a lot of what was once considered wondrous, and even though the proportion of people with special gifts didn't really increase through the ages, the internet and the media enabled people to see magic as something fairly common, even if only in small sparkles and minor illusions.

Gods were a matter of belief more than a certainty, in this scenario. There were always people saying they saw a god, miracles being performed, signs that looked too specific to ignore, but there were also smartphones proving the weird shapes in the clouds were a natural phenomenon, cameras that never recorded appearances of said deities, science explaining things and a general distrust of the mythical. Gods were supposedly these grandiose, impossibly powerful figures, so where were they when people needed? Why didn’t they interfered in things like wars or famine?

Each pantheon had different politics towards humans, but this reputation of unapologetically meddling with the affairs of the mortals definitely came from the Greeks, especially the olympians. It made for very interesting stories but unsettling reality, to have powerful people above the law who could come and do whatever they wanted - like particularly vicious rich people, for the matter. Regardless, even them didn’t do things as obviously anymore. Subtlety was a much more effective method of doing stuff, even if you were an attention-starved asshole like Zeus.

In Covent Garden, no one paid much mind to the black woman with long braids tied back, a dark overcoat and a beautiful gold and copper silken scarf. She walked slowly through the square, stopping to watch the performers among the Saturday crowd with the affection and pride of a mother. Each one of those musicians, singers, dancers - even the comedian to the right, even if it was more in her sister’s domain - didn’t know how much energy they moved around and exactly how they impacted their audience, how they could change someone’s entire day. They didn’t know of the invisible, intangible helpers all around, watching with starry eyes, occasionally whispering tips, jokes, songs… The muses, doing their wonderful jobs.

Terpsichore loved her children and liked Covent Garden a fair amount, but she wasn’t there at leisure that afternoon. It looked like it was going to rain soon, certainly a melancholic mood fitting of her task: she finally came to check on her bewildered, wronged child. Now, close as she was, she could feel her essence through the warped magic binding her in place. She just had to call her core and she'd know what was up. Even if she didn't, she’d come.

Emily was watching Lena and Amélie searching for a time rift, her mind high in the clouds. She was, for example, considering taking a look around for a nut or berry to steal - it’s worth to note that the girls usually had some on them, but it was fun to just snatch from an unsuspecting party - or if she should fly around a bit, maybe make some sweet upside down loops for the satisfaction of Lena being completely oblivious to it. A weird, powerful desire hit her in the middle of the daydreams and she couldn’t understand at first: it was something visceral, a familiar yearning to... Move? She took flight from the sidewalk and darted to the square as fast as she could. A couple of minutes later she was landing on a table at a terrace coffee shop Amélie liked to go sometimes, where an assorted pile of berries waited for her in a bowl, and her higher muse had brownie and a cappuccino.

“Hello, my dear” Terpsichore had a soft smile that didn’t give much away, as always. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner. Things aren’t exactly smooth on our side.”

That was quite funny to hear, when all Emily felt was relief from seeing her superior. She hopped towards her and chirped expectantly, earning a chuckle. Terpsichore put down her cup and extended a hand.

Now that she was there they could talk. With words. _Spoken words!_ Emily couldn’t wait.

There was a reason the muses looked up to their respective higher counterparts. As with most gods, they were embodiments of the things they represented: if regular muses were born of the echo of outstanding art into infinity, then they were born from an echo of their higher muses assessed by the mortals. Like particles gaining a unique conscience, they separated from the whole, but the connection remained... That was why Terpsichore could tug at Emily’s very core to make her come to her and why, when Emily hopped on her hand, she was able to pull her conscience innard for them to have a proper conversation.

It was like merging back, and the higher muse didn’t like to do it, especially over big amounts of time - the longer they stood like this, the more they risked the lesser muse, Emily in this case, to start dissolving her conscience back into the whole. Still, it was the only way they had at the moment, and freed from the magic that bound her to a bird body, Emily gasped and shook in what could be described as Terpsichore’s headspace. She sat on a patch of grass and felt the texture of it beneath her fingers, the sun warm on her skin... Even though she knew it was all in her mind, it felt wonderful and very strange to be a woman again. She wasn’t used to it anymore.

“So tell me dear, how have you been?”

Terpsichore was sitting on a bench park by her, legs crossed and perfect posture, even in such an informal situation. 

“It’s b--” Emily’s voice was hoarse from disuse. She cleared her throat and tried again, even if it scratched inside. “It’s been good. And weird. Sometimes I still lose my mind to the bird side, but I missed Amé and Lena so much, they are the best thing I could hope for. They’re so patient and take care of me so well...”

“I didn’t expect anything less from them” The higher muse cocked her head to the side slightly. “But I want to know about you. How often are you losing your mind?”

Emily frowned, trying to remember. “Well... It was pretty bad about a dozen times this month. It happened mostly in the early days, but the thoughts keep shifting to bird things very often, if I’m not paying attention. The girls help ground me, though. It’s good to have someone constantly talking to me and knowing I’m a person.”

“How often are you giving in to these thoughts?”

She looked down, blushing. “Often…?”

“Mm.” There was no change of demeanor or tone on Terpsichore’s part. She wasn’t judging. “Are your powers still out of your complete control?”

“Yes.”

She nodded gravely and got up, offering her child a hand just as she did before. “Let me remind you of what you’re really made of.”

Emily took her hand. Before she could even think of getting up they were gone, navigating the streams of energy through the planet in incredible speed as they teleported.

 _Flash._ They were at a festival, people with typical clothing danced to the sound of drums and pipes, with smiles on their faces. 

_Flash._ A teenager tried to imitate the moves she saw on a video, without a lot of skill.

 _Flash._ A big group of kids ran through a poor street, raising dust as their bare feet hit the red ground. They shouted, tripped and tried to hinder each other, all of them going after a colorful falling kite.

 _Flash._ Acolytes performed a ritualistic dance, carrying ceremonial swords and candles. Every movement was executed with a sense of pride and purpose, and they mirrored each other perfectly with the motions.

 _Flash_. Indigenous people were painted with combat motifs. Their strength and power was in their traditional dance before the battle. It would grant them the necessary boons.

 _Flash_. They saw people in hospitals, sometimes moving only their heads to a noisy tune on the radio. Circus people causing a fun commotion on a square. Birds-of-paradise in their mating dances. Cabarets, sensual dancers. Dads spinning young kids in the air and the trail of laughter and affection it left. Patients in physiotherapy clumsily putting a foot in front of the other after months of wheelchairs, or years. The spinning dance of the planets, and galaxies, and black holes. Atoms jumping around everything. Movement.

Movement…

Just like the Lena’s Clumsy steps when Amélie tried to teach her to waltz, Hana and Brigitte competing on dance videogames, Ana slipping through Fareeha’s fingers when she wanted to do some mischief…

As her thoughts trailed to the people she loved in London, Emily noticed she was back on the garden on Terpsichore’s headspace, and she felt light and unrestrained, like she really was, in reality.

“Thank you so much…” She looked up and Terpsichore smiled back at her, letting go of her hand.

“This should last a good while.” She sat back down and paused, her smile waning. “I’m sorry it’s taking this long to find a way to free you, Emily. Things have taken such a dramatic turn…”

If it wasn’t her high muse there, Emily would’ve given her a reassuring hug. She was worried about the time it was taking, after making the huge effort to find and bring her back? After reuniting her with Amélie and Lena, and time and time again restoring her right mind? Terpsichore was far too good.

Emily giggled a bit, in that endearing way that Lena used to. “My lady, you don’t have any obligation to help me, and yet you do it; you absolutely shouldn’t apologize.”

Terpsichore’s gaze was far away now, up into the sky. “I helped sentence you, despite my feelings on the matter.”

There it was, the rocky subject. They danced around it since Terpsichore found her, and Emily still didn’t know much more than the fact she felt really guilty about it, despite being the _fucking higher muse_ who helped structurate the whole thing they called their society. She could’ve called the sentence off if she really wanted, but Emily’s personal theory was that she didn’t want to be this kind of ruler, or she’d just be an asshole like the olympians. But wasn’t helping her now kind of the same thing, except for the relative secrecy? Maybe maintaining the image was one thing, and doing what she thought was right a completely different one. She couldn’t tell - reading her was all but impossible, at least for her. She was sure there were things Terpsichore wanted to tell her and couldn’t, though. Why?

Emily shook her head slowly and sighed. She wouldn’t have that particular answer. “You brought me back, as well.”

“Partially.” She was quick to point out.

“Well I can’t wait for you to babysit me around, you got other things to do!” She opened her arms, mildly exasperated. “My lady you _really_ shouldn’t be beating yourself up because of that. Who else would’ve helped me? Who would’ve even found me?”

“But you’re still a bird, that’s not what I planned.”

Emily got up and tumbled her way to the bench, sitting by Terpsichore. She had all sorts of grimaces going on as she did, because keeping balance was so difficult with legs the wrong proportion and her balance center in a different place. At least it helped break the tension a bit.

“It was out of your control...”

“Maybe that’s the problem.” Terpsichore crisped her lips, still looking away. It made Emily anxious. 

Knowing full well she was out of line, she asked: “What’s really going on…?”

“The number of things out of my control is getting alarmingly big, I’m afraid.”

Classic Terpsichore, it was an answer that didn’t really answer anything at all. She sounded pained, though, and now Emily really wanted to hug and comfort her but that would be a whole new level of out-of-line she didn’t want to step into. She couldn’t say things would be alright, she didn’t know what was happening. What could she do?  
  
Curiously, Amélie came to mind. Amélie and Lena, actually, and how the latter was always reminding the first of the good things she did willingly, despite her recurring states of sadness. _You’re doing the best you can_ , she usually said. _You didn’t choose to feel this bad._

Maybe Emily could do something, after all.

“Yeah, I can relate.” She chuckled. “But for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing an amazing job and I’m very grateful for all the help.” 

“You’re too kind, dear.”

“Oh _I’m_ too kind?” She put a hand on her chest, faking offense, but smiled afterwards. “I’m not the one who went after a specific robin amongst millions…” She trailed off, looking at the sky. There was a gentle breeze passing by, and she could feel it against the feathers she didn’t have there. Was she feeling that in the real world or was it a ghost sensation? She wanted to take flight. Maybe there were some juicy berries she could snatch…

The snap of fingers in front of her face made her jump on her seat. Terpsichore watched her with cautious eyes. “Emily?”

“Sorry” She looked down to her hands, wriggling her fingers a bit, certifying herself she still looked human. There was a guilt trying to crawl through her mind, but she tried her best to fight it. “It’s the bird inside.”

Terpsichore put a hand over hers. “Remind me of who you are.” 

She nodded. That was a very basic exercise of theirs when those episodes happened. “I’m Emily. I’m a couple centuries old, and I currently live in London with my girlfriends and our kittens. The body I’m currently in doesn’t reflect who I am but damn, _I want_ _not to be a fucking bird anymore!_ I’m a muse, for fuck’s sake, _Amélie’s_ muse, and that reminds me - _why was she assigned another one?!_ ”

Now that was a sudden outburst, one that Emily only came out of when Terpsichore snickered.

“My dear, you’re not supposed to have regained your mind, or your powers. Did you think an artist like miss Guillard would go unattended for long? The council sent a new muse right away to make a point: they wanted to show you were in the past.”

 _How dare they?_ She clenched her fist, her nostrils flaring up for a moment. She didn’t want to be explosive with the one person who didn’t deserve it (and who happened to be her superior, too). “I’m going to kill those bastards one by one, slowly, with fire.”

“I’d say you have legitimate reasons, but I must remind you we’re not in classical times, where someone could easily get away with this sort of thing. Especially with Maximillien around.”

“Who?”

“Right, you don’t know it... Most of the council adopted names now. Maximillien is the one with that particularly sly energy.” 

Saying “ _the one with the sly energy”_ didn’t do much to help identify the guy, but they originally referred to each other with energy rather than words - and Terpsichore sent her the exact type of energy for her to remember the odious council muse who always claimed she was a shame to their kind. “ _Assholes!_ ” Emily got up and started pacing. After all the ruckus they caused because she got a name and it was wrong, they now wanted names for themselves? Fuck them. They should remain nameless and bitter, it was only right. Where was justice when they needed her?!   
  
As if Athena would care.

Hmpf.

“Well, you’re certainly very yourself right now.” Terpsichore smiled, and Emily stopped dead in her tracks, giving her an incredulous look. Was that intentional?! “Jokes aside, there’s a last thing I should tell you before I go, something that I intended to tell you first but we always get sidetracked: we still can’t enter Moira’s lab. I’m sure whoever is able to break the seal can also end the spell on you, but I don’t know how long it’ll take for us to find such an individual. You might want to look into alternatives unavailable to me meanwhile.”

“Like what?”

“Currying favor with bigger gods.” 

That wasn’t what Emily was expecting to hear, by her surprised expression. “Really?”

“Well, your girlfriends are mortal. If they do something sufficiently big they might attract the attention of one of the Olympians or the gods directly under them. They might be way more silent than they used to in classical times, but they still watch.”

“Really?” She repeated herself. “Because I never even saw Apollo and he’s the patron of the arts, right? He should come to the Houses or something, to give directions to you Higher Muses.”

“It’s complicated.” Terpsichore made a pause, and it came out quite weary on her part. “Nowadays the Olympians are perfectly happy to leave the less powerful minor gods to themselves, unless it’s something vitally important to them. If they really…” She seemed to clinch her teeth for a moment. “If it was in their interest, the Houses wouldn’t be in such a dire situation, and Moira’s lab would be open already. We are not a priority.” 

“How charming of them.” Emily scoffed and started pacing again. “Why would they hear Amélie and Lena, then?”

“You know the answer to that.”

It annoyed her at first, but then she stopped to think a bit - and Terpsichore was right, she did know. Mortals and their insane surplus energy were the source of power and life for most of the spirits and deities. If you weren’t a spirit of nature, aether or magic in its raw form, then you were bound to depend on the mortals and everything they did. They’d savour anything Lena and Amélie did for them as a feast and a boon, given it was to their taste… Their own kind couldn’t do the same thing for them.

Emily let out a long, weary sigh. “Can I please call them names right now?”

“If you want to risk being fried by lightning…” Terpsichore got up and went to Emily, taking her hands. “I have to go now. We don’t want you dissolving into my mind.”

There was a sad acknowledgement from Emily’s part, a nod and a light squeeze of hands. “Thank you.”

“I hope to see you soon, child.”

In the blink of an eye Emily was back in the café, a little bird on a table with a bowl of berries and a half-full cup of cappuccino. Alone. Her chest tightened as she acknowledged the fact, and a bit more at how she felt way more comfortable like a bird than a woman, now. She wasn’t a bird.

 _She wasn’t a bird._  


\--

“What if she got stuck somewhere? I can’t believe we forgot her!” Lena was putting her coat back on and walking towards the front door. Naturally she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and stumbled on the couch, the side table and would’ve tripped on the rug if Amélie didn’t catch her in time.

“You were really shaken by that memory and I was worried about you, it’s not that terrible…” In fact, Amélie thought it was just that much terrible, but she was still trying to get Lena to calm down and not have any sort of fit.

“Not that terrible? Amé! She already thinks she’s a nuisance without us forgetting her on the other side of the city!”

“It’s a 15-minute trip, _chérie_ \--”

“But It’s been an hour! Of course I had to go and talk to the blasted god, didn’t I? Ugh!”

She opened the door with a bit too much eagerness and got out without even looking behind. If Amélie wasn’t going, she’d pick up her bike and go by herself. Thanks god she still could use it!

In her fuming irritation, she didn’t see the bird coming in by the back garden, but Amélie did.

“Lena, she’s here!”

Lena whipped back in a speed that made her vision spin and her stomach get sick, but once she got a hold of herself again she could see Emily inside, on her lover’s hands. She went back in and slammed the door closed. If it was the one she had in her old apartment, it would probably be breaking on the hinges at the moment, earning her a sermon from Ana. “Emily! Where have you been?!”

Her phone immediately started playing a song.

_Follow me_

_You can follow me_

_I will keep you safe_

Once Emily was sure both of them heard it, she flew upstairs, to the computer. The things she wanted to say were best understood by excruciatingly repetitive pecking on the keyboard to form sentences, she was sure.

\--  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in the end is Follow Me, by Muse.
> 
> I guess you people have noticed the chapter titles are all song titles, didn't you? =3


	5. Let's get it started

How to please a Greek god, as stated in theology:

  * Animal sacrifices;
  * Religious rites;
  * Prayer;
  * Festivals:
  * Votive offerings;
  * Libation.



How to please a Greek god, as stated by Lena Oxton:

  * Make a big-ass piece of art in a place a lot of people will see daily;
  * Post it online so even more people will see it;
  * Depict said deity looking pretty and mighty;
  * Dedicate it to them;
  * Make your wish;
  * Profit.



When Emily explained that they could choose whichever deity they wanted, as they could all mold people - and to an extent, reality - as they saw fit, Lena immediately started pouring plans out like a broken dam. Apollo would certainly appreciate a huge mural in his honor on the side of a building, right? She could do that. With Amélie’s money, she could even offer it free of charge to some place in Covent Garden, if she was feeling that fancy. Amélie, in a little less ambitious attempt, would dedicate every rehearsal she conducted that season to him. She didn’t come up with anything else she could do while they were brainstorming, as she didn’t think buying things or commissioning other people to make statues, for example, would help much. If they wanted to be on Apollo’s good side, it had to be by their own effort.

Speaking of own effort, maybe he’d like it if one of them learnt to play an instrument? One more artistic skill was always good, and would be learnt in his honor. Or trying their hands at new techniques and styles? It was fun, and improvement…

Unfortunately, Emily reminded them these last ideas were more focused on them than Apollo, and he was an Olympian who embodied the sun - he was probably very self-centered, in soft terms.

She’d love to say he probably was a narcissistic asshole, but one never knows who might be watching.

They worked so hard. Lena dedicated the rest of the weekend to sketching the perfect mural to paint, sheets and sheets of paper littered her working room, but apparently she was hit by a very ill-timed art block. More than once, Amélie went to fetch her for dinner and found her sleeping with her face on the desk, holding a pencil loosely after sketching furiously for hours and coming up with nothing that could satisfy her inner critic. Amélie, on the other hand, wasn't really having problems with her side of the plan, as she bit off no more than she could handle. When the workdays came, she did as Emily instructed and dedicated the rehearsals to Apollo in her mind, some laurel leaves firm on her hand, and went on as usual, sometimes catching herself thinking the god might be quite proud of that group of absurdly skilled people; she certainly was.

Emily also let her on in an interesting tidbit of knowledge: _“When you dedicate it to him - or anyone, really - that person will receive a lot of the energy that would go to your muse''._ She typed that on the keyboard one day, with a fair share of typos. 

“So you’ll get nothing?” Amélie looked at her with a level of concern that caught Emily off-guard. Amélie still thought she was her muse, like it was something unchangeable? It made her ego purr in satisfaction, but it also brought a bit of guilt for the poor muse she’d been death-glaring for being in her place. She didn’t even know Emily was more than a weird bird - courtesy of Moira’s obscuring spell - and she was doing her job...

...For _two years,_ while Emily spent half the time oblivious to the fact that she wasn't just an ordinary robin amongst a million of others, and the other half struggling to get a hold of her actual sentient mind.

Oh, how quickly that guilt evaporated from her mind.

 _She was Amélie's muse, bitch_ \- she'd be sure to make that clear when she went back to her form. 

When, not if. It would happen someday, she was sure of that.

\--

Lena threw a paper ball at the other side of the room, sighing. The thing made a pathetic arc and landed on the fluffy rug, with a dozen others around it. Poulain and Baguette pounced on it almost immediately, making her smile at something, at least 

The whole week passed she still had no clue of what she’d paint. Why did the block decided to strike her now? She was doing fine before, it was so unfair. Where was her own muse?

Amélie entered the room with two steaming cups of hot chocolate, as if on cue. She offered Lena one before sitting by her side, to which she replied with a weak, tired smile.

“By the look on your face, you really need something sweet.” Amélie ran a hand through her hair, and she let her head fall to that helpful shoulder. 

“You know me well.” She mumbled right before taking a sip. It was still too hot to drink, though. “It’s been a week, Amé, and I hate everything I’m drawing!”

“You may be overdoing it, _chérie._ ”

“But I want to draw!” She squeaked, pouting. “It’s a bloody Greek god, not the Sistine Chapel ceiling, for god’s sake!”

“That’s good - I heard it cost Michelangelo some of his sight.” Amélie still stroked her hair.

“Well, I’d give a whole eye if it would make him bring Em back!”

Emily’s head appeared from behind a pile of paper upon hearing her name. She let out a loud, high chirp, and Amélie had the feeling it was some sort of indignant reply. 

“What are you doing over there?” Amélie raised herself a bit to try and see what Emily was doing. She was turning the pages of one of Lena’s sketchbooks with her beak, and it looked painfully impractical. “Bring it to me, I’ll turn it for you if you want.” 

Emily clasped the fabric bookmarker with her beak and dragged the sketchbook all the way to her girlfriends. She was lucky it was a tiny thing, otherwise it would be far too much to carry.

Amélie took it between her and Lena and opened it on a random page filled with movement studies: a person stretching with their arms up, then reaching for the tip of their toes, and a third turning their torso, all of them made by ballpoint pen in a hurry.

“Tell me when you want me to stop.” Amélie turned the page and took a glance at the next drawing, a couple of cartoon kitties suspiciously similar to Baguette and Poulain. On the next one, incomprehensible lines, a spaceship, planets, and after it, a couple of characters sitting on the back of a car… Amélie made small comments on how charming or skillful the drawings were as she skimmed through the pages, but Lena didn’t react to them; she just drank her chocolate and stared.

There was a drawing of two women sitting by a lake, when Emily chirped for Amélie to stop. One of the women, dressed in a flowy dress with rich embroidery and a cape with furs on the rim, extended a hand to a landing bird.The other one watched them with a smile, getting off her travelling clothes to enter the lake. They were definitely the characters Lena made for the three of them, the Adventurer, the Goddess and the now birdified Trickster. 

Emily pecked Lena’s leg lightly, so she’d look at her.

“What?” Lena tilted her head. Emily looked to her and back at the drawing. “Yeah, I made it.”

 _No, silly_! Emily thought to herself. It seemed like she’d have to be a little more vocal about it…

“It’s beautiful.” Amélie said. “And I can’t get over the fact you portrayed me as an ancient goddess.”

_Yes Amé, make her talk about it!_

Lena chuckled. “That’s because you _are_ a goddess, love.”

“The ladykiller is back, I see.” Améllie took a sip of her own chocolate.

“It’s so much easier when I’m telling the truth, you know?”

“Of course. Pray tell, what powers do I have, besides dropping charming adventurers to their knees in love?”

 _Or to their knees for other stuff_ , Emily thought.

Unaware of that line of thought, Lena scratched her chin. “You’re like a moon goddess with hair like the night! When you dance you can make people do anything you want."

 _Lena did figure you out, huh?_ Emily would've snickered with herself in amusement, but what came out was a vibrating short sound that didn't really sound like it.

"Anyone?" Amélie inched closer, her voice dropping low.

"Yes!” Lena eyes flashed with excitement. “Stories say that she charmed a whole pack of wolves out of eating a traveler and his daughter, for one, but there are all sorts of tales."

"You’re delightful, _chérie._ How do you come up with these details?"

She scratched her nose. "Ah, you know me. I daydream a lot.”

That was certainly true. Emily watched them talking about Lena’s story satisfied Amélie was doing what she wanted in the first place: distracting their cute, lovely, imaginative girlfriend. She desperately needed a break.

“...But why aren’t the three of them together yet?” Amélie scoffed, putting a hand on her chest in a mildly offended gesture.

“Because slow burn, Amé!” Lena giggled. “Don’t you love seeing three useless lesbians pining for each other but being dumb and not realizing they actually can be together?”

“That sounds a lot like it would give me a headache, actually. I’d slap the three of them and tell them to go on with it already.”

“You don’t appreciate true romance!” Lena squeaked, indignant. “It’s about the nuances, Amé!”

“Yes, I’m sure it is.” She chuckled and pulled Lena in for a kiss, something calm and tender that made the girl sigh and melt in her arms. It was heartwarming to watch, and Emily would be grinning like an idiot if that was doable. She wanted to kiss them _so much._

The cheap portable radio on the cabinet turned on, resounding with her mushy feelings.

_Oh, oh my love_

_my darling_

_I've hungered for your touch_

_A long and lonely time_

_And time goes by_

_so slowly_

_And time can do so much_

_Are you still mine_

Lena and Amélie looked at each other, then at Emily.

_Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck--_

“Is this... That song from Ghost?” Lena blinked.

Emily immediately shut the radio down. Thanks the Nine she was a bird, or she’d be blushing to the tips of her fingers.

“I believe it is, yes.” Amélie held a chuckle.

“Aw love!” Lena bursted into laughter. “C’mon Amé, let’s make some pottery to go with it!”

“Only if Em put the song back on.”

You know what? She’d roll with it.

The song went back on and Emily stared at them, hoping they picked up she was judgmentally urging them to go on, make some pottery. She’d have a lot of fun watching it and the subsequent clay wars that would definitely follow. Lena would certainly be picking it out of her hair for a week, if she knew her well.

Of course Lena got up, darted out of the room giggling like a maniac and came back with a clay mug she’d bought in a trip somewhere. She sat on Amélie’s lap - Emily hopped aside, giggling herself in her birdy way - and urged her to play the part of Patrick Swayze, because who wouldn’t like to run her hands on those soft, lean arms of hers while she made an expression of pure delight?

Needless to say, the whole thing was as silly as it sounded - and they had a blast enacting it.

\--

That night, Lena had a weird dream. Someone screamed in the darkness, and she didn’t know where she should run to, in order to help. She spent a lot of time running, then she fell - and she was in the Timestream, floating. A fighter jet like none she’d seen before passed by her in slow motion, disintegrating beautifully: fuselage cracking and flying away, engines sparking and catching on fire, wings breaking like they were made of rice paper. The glass dome over the cockpit shattered outwards in a million glinting orange pieces, and she saw the person inside flickering like frames in a defective movie, in and out of existence. Lena darted towards them, pushing the floating debris aside. She released the safety belts, detached the oxygen mask and tried to grab the person by the shoulders, praying it was actually possible.

As soon as her hands settled in the strangers’ vest, she knew who they were. All the memories of a lifetime, past, present and future, flooded her mind - It was her, Lena, but a different one. She was from another world, another time, the future. Wow, she’d be a hero. She’d also disappear if she didn’t wear a neat harness, Winston’s design. Em was a human, a normal girl, and Amé-- wait. Amé was blue?!

Someone was screaming in the dark, and Lena opened her eyes.

She was laying with her back to the floor, the ever-moving stream above her. An impossibly old man sat by her side , his long beard unkempt and his milky eyes holding mysteries older than anyone would dare speak. Khronos.

“Aw, my head.” She sat down slowly, looking around. That place wasn’t more than a chunk of rock with black marble floor and a couple of falling columns. “Boss? What are you… Did you bring me in while I was sleeping? That’s rude!”

“You weren’t sleeping, you’re just out of your usual time.” Khronos’ voice was scratchy, as if he’d been sitting there for a thousand years in silence. “I brought you in to deal with that other instance of you, like you asked.” He snickered, and it was almost a cough.

Oh, right. Lena always forgot that, just as she always forgot a lot of things her human brain couldn’t exactly process when she was out of the timestream: A dozen versions of her lashing against the Witch of the Wilds was one of those things, for example, and how they popped throughout the place occasionally, giving Khronos a big headache. _You’re all too loud_ , he said. _If you want to ensure they’ll get out of here unharmed, you’ll deal with the rest of them._

She remembered getting the pilot/hero version of her out of the self-destructing cockpit and sending her on a path she knew wouldn’t twist her mind terribly until she was rescued - and yes, she’d be rescued, it was in her future. 

Then the stream shifted and she was there by Khronos, which meant…

“You still brought me here” Lena poked the floor with a finger, and looked at that husk of a man. “So what do you need? I bet it’s not my expertise on aircrafts!” She snickered, but then her face slowly fell and she hugged herself. “Am I really the only one who can’t fly? This one, she’s got her disappearing condition, true, but she also got my powers and she could do it. She had a couple of amazing planes, too.”

Khronos stared at her, unmoved. “You aren’t, no. What do you plan on doing with it, feel sorry for yourself? Wait until after you investigate this new rift.”

“Another one?”

“Yes, and also in London. They’re appearing at an alarming rate _._ ” He crisped his lips in distaste.

They’d talked about it the last time, when she went to tell him about the weird detached memory she’d found. Rifts were appearing in London, specifically, and although he wouldn’t admit to it, Khronos didn’t know why. That enraged him greatly - he knew things from the dawn of time to the end of the days, how couldn’t he know something seemingly trivial as that? What could possibly escape his gaze?

Lena nodded, hesitating. “Okay... Can I ask you something else, though?” He raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to turn Emily back to a person, right?”

“Yes.” Lena’s heart jumped to her throat. “I can rewind her to before she was enchanted.”

_Oh my God Oh my GOD OHMYG--_

“ _However”_ He gave her a look. “That would mean bringing her here, which I’m not able to do, and if you try sneaking her through a tear, I’ll kill you both.”

“But Khronos!” She tried her best kicked puppy face.

“No.”

“Well I’ll go on a strike, then! No jobs for you!”

He didn’t even blink at the threat. “You’ll no longer be useful, I’ll snuff out your stolen little piece of me and you’ll die.”

Lena put a hand on her chest instinctively, like she could protect said little piece with the gesture. “Gee boss, don’t you like me one bit?”

“You? I liked my sons and daughters, while I was in that titan vessel. I still ate all of them, as time should.”

Okay, that was really creepy. Lena didn’t want to be eaten or killed or anything remotely as extreme as those. “Wait. You were also the titan?”

“A part of me was. I was curious about your physical world, you see? It’s overrated.” He shook his head. “That part is still agonizing in flaming pieces all over the Tartarus, in case you’re feeling sorry for the gods.”

Actually she was feeling sorry for herself only, having to hear those things. She’d better change the subject. “Lovely. So, where did you say this rift was again…?” 

\--

There were some complications, but after a lengthy chase and quite a bit of smashed glass, the werewolf finally succumbed to the sleep darts and curled up like an adorable hybrid puppy on the floor. Full moon nights were always troublesome for the magic police, and this one wasn’t different: Fareeha stood in front of the wrecked store, her lungs burning from all the running, her legs aching from the effort. She spent half the night on foot with her colleagues, chasing after the creature. It was good it finally came to a close and no one was harmed.

Ana approached slowly, her rifle still warm from the tranquilizer shots. “Are you okay, _habibti_?”

“Yes, just tired.” Fareeha smiled, making an effort to stand straight. “Thank you for coming. This one was a slippery bastard.”

“The poor dog must be having a worse day than any of us, losing control like that.” She shook her head. Inside the store, three officers were trying to handcuff the werewolf, but all of the cuffs they brought were proving to be too small. The creature was huge, even for one of its kind - it must be a hell of an alpha. “You were right to call. I’m still the best sniper around these parts.”

“Not even Sojourn argues with that.” Fareeha snickered.

“Hey Amari! Get your ass over here and help us tie this furry!” One of the colleagues shouted from inside. They had given up on handcuffing the werewolf, and now he was putting a muzzle on it while the two others tied their hands with a heavy chain, the only other thing they had available.

“Excuse me, mom” She turned to face the other officers. “Hey! Don’t call them that, it’s really offensive!”

Ana nodded slightly and watched her daughter go, exhausted but not relaxed, just as she taught her. One must not underestimate a foe, even when it’s down - it might be the last mistake one makes. 

Unfortunately, Fareeha’s colleagues didn’t seem to have learnt that lesson.

Despite being hit by several sleep darts, this wolf seemed to have either incredibly thick skin or a superior healing factor; Upon being jostled around like that, it half woke up and thrashed against the chains, catching everyone by surprise. The chains shattered like they were made of glass under it’s raw strength, the creature lashed out towards the nearest officer, Fareeha jumped to push her colleague out of harm’s way, and--

Well, it all ended up in the hospital, with gauze and bandages, a couple of vaccines and Fareeha insisting it was all okay when it really wasn’t. 

Injuries caused by werewolves were usually fine, if made by a beta or an omega. When they were caused by an alpha, though, there was a fair chance they carried the lycanthropy with them, and in a full moon night… They’d still monitor how the vaccines would react on Fareeha’s system, but the odds were not in her favour. 

She’d probably turn. 

She could die in the process.

It was three in the morning and Ana held her hand as the fever made her turn and whimper in bed, feeling cold and trembling. A doctor and a nurse were there, administering medicine, helping with the pain, doing what they could. Ana mumbled every protective enchantment she knew from the old faith and any other she knew, trying not to fall to desperation. Fareeha was an Amari, and she wouldn’t succumb to a gash the size of a pen in her arm. If Anubis had to take her, let it be as one reborn in his image, not as a soul.

Eventually the fever subsided and Fareeha slumbered, looking very ill. The doctor said it was the calm before the storm: they would soon know if the infection had taken hold, and they needed to restrain her and exit the room. Her possible turning could be very violent.

Ana didn’t want to leave but agreed in the end, when she was informed they’d let her stay in the adjacent area, with full view to the room by the reinforced glass. She sat there and waited, her head spinning as the doctor kept talking. She wasn’t really listening to him, or paying attention to anything else besides the window. Her girl was hurt… How could she not protect her? Why didn’t she think of shooting more blasted sleep darts?

The doctor and the nurse eventually left, promising to return soon and urging her to push a button to call them if anything happened. There was nothing to do now but keep waiting. 

Her daughter, a werewolf…

“What happened to scout girl, _abuelita?”_

Sombra was there, by Ana’s side. She looked genuinely curious, looking through the window at the sleeping Fareeha, but Ana knew better than to tell her the truth. Information was power for her, and she could find by other means if she really wanted.

“I don’t have the energy to deal with you right now.” 

One glance and Sombra could tell that whatever happened was really bad. Ana looked older than ever, her words carried no strength, her posture was tense. If she wanted to squeeze information out of granny, now was the time - it was almost a pity that was not what she was there for, at least for the night.

“If you don’t want me to warn you about impending doom, then suit yourself.” She shrugged, eyes returning to the room.

For a moment, the only sound was the hum of the hospital machinery. Then Ana sighed. “Speak.”

“You know about the Vishkar cultists, right?”

“I’ve heard whispers.”

“I’ve tracked an unusual amount of money spent on parts and high-tech components originating from their accounts. They’re here in London. I thought you’d like to know that.”

A bunch of rich cultists building a probable doomsday machine there in London? Usually Ana would’ve scoffed and started making a plan as soon as possible, but now…

"My little girl is in that room, fighting for her life. She may not even be human by the end of the night..." She closed her eyes, appearing to age several decades in an instant. "I can't even help her..."

She fell silent, her shoulders sagged. Sombra looked at her and saw not the sniper, the sobrenatural fighter; right now, Ana was just a mother afraid of losing her daughter, completely exposed.

Sombra sat by her side. “She’s a lot like you, _abuelita_. She’s going to come out of this stronger and more boring than ever. I bet she’ll even start teaching kids about civic duties!”

There was a hint of a snicker on Ana’s part. Good.

“She’s going to be alright.” She repeated, uncharacteristically soft. 

Ana really wanted her words to be the truth.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song from Ghost is Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. xD


	6. The Hounds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Tell us he'll be found  
>  I can almost hear the hounds..._

The stranger came in the late hours, just when night was about to turn into morning. Ana was sitting on the same padded chair from before, lost in an ocean of her feelings and anxieties, floating still in the darkness below the brine. Her eyes were set on the glass separating that room from Fareeha’s, and when the door opened, she merely looked in that direction. However, the person entering was no doctor: It was a hulking form, almost as tall and wide as the doorframe. Upon noticing this, she turned to face him properly and saw a very muscular old man in a battered jacket, impeccably-trimmed beard and slicked back hair. One ugly, deep scar went from his forehead down to his left cheek, crossing a ruined eye, but the other was of a soft blue. He looked powerful and stoic - but as soon as he fixed his gaze on Ana, his whole demeanor softened.

“You must be the Amari mother.” He picked up one of Ana’s hands, kneeling by her side. Even like this he was almost as tall as her, his voice was booming, and his accent was thick with German. “I’m Reinhardt Wilhelm. It’s such a shame we have to meet like this.”

She blinked a couple of times, speechless. “I’m Ana Amari. Why--”

“Oh! Oh, mr. Wilhelm, I told you to wait for me!” They both looked back at the door. The night shift doctor assigned to Fareeha was there, panting like he’d just ran a marathon.

“You walk too slowly, young man!” Reinhardt replied, giving him a broad smile.

“Anyway, mrs. Amari, this is Mr. Reinhardt Wilhelm. He represents the--”   
  
“The Wolves Association of Germany.” Reinhardt took it from there, still holding Ana’s hand. His eyes were very soft as he looked at her. “You must be thinking “what is he doing all the way here in this foggy land”? Well, I was visiting my goddaughter, but she had to go meet with a client, so I decided to pay a visit to the local head of the association, you see, we all know each other… Then the request came and I offered to take a look once he’d described the case to me. Your daughter is very brave.”

“I know.” Ana ‘s shoulders sagged. “It doesn’t change the fact she’s there on a stretcher, possibly turning into a werewolf. Did you come here only to express your sympathies?”

“No, of course not. I came to stand by your daughter and ease her turning process, should it really happen. It’s always good to have a fellow wolf by your side to guide you - if you let me, of course.”

She didn’t like the idea. That stranger thought he could go in there and take care of Fareeha when she couldn’t? What sort of cruel joke was that? Still, he had a point; it would be easier for her after the change if she had an equal around, and he seemed so sincerely worried and benevolent he couldn’t hurt a fly. She didn’t know him, though. She struggled with the idea, ultimately deciding to follow her gut feeling and swallow her pride.

“Can I go with you, Mr. Wilhelm?” She asked.

“I’m afraid I cannot ensure your safety, my lady.”

“I can hold on my own.” She crossed her arms and leaned forward a bit, every part of her body language threatening.

He was unfazed. If anything, his tone was comprehensive. “Even if you were an experienced creature hunter, my dear, it would be extremely dangerous to stay in a closed room with a freshly turned werewolf. I cannot allow it.”

Ana sighed deeply. She understood, of course, it only made sense; even with her experience dealing with magical creatures and artefacts, she would have little chance against a werewolf in an enclosed space. Her mother heart didn’t want to listen, though. It was just too painful.

She looked right into Reinhardt’s eyes. “You may go stay by her side, but if you hurt her in any way I  _ will _ find you and I  _ will _ kill you.”

Usually people would back away from a threat like that, especially one delivered with such unwavering determination. Reinhardt, however, burst into a hearty laughter and nodded, patting Ana’s hands with a little bit of a strength she wasn’t sure he knew he was applying. “Now that’s a woman of nerve! You have my knight’s promise, mrs. Amari - I will stay by your daughter side and protect her with all my might!” He took his fist up and hit his chest, to go with said promise, then he got up grunting about staying in the same position for too long. “Now, do you have any questions?”

Reinhardt reminded her of someone: a king she defended once, alongside a motley crew of adventurers. But that was a long time ago… “Yes. How exactly are you going to keep her safe…?”  
  


\--  
  
  


There was a time when Amélie had problems sleeping. She’d lay down and stare at the ceiling for hours in the months after Gérard’s death, exhausted but unable to slumber. If she was lucky, her mind was empty; if not, it would bury her in her own actions, memories, sadness and loneliness. When she eventually managed to sleep, it was light and troubled, full of nightmares. By the time she met Lena and Emily, her sleep pattern had shifted 180º - she was sleeping heavily and for too long, a side effect of the apathy caused by depression. It was stable at the moment, and Amélie was proud to acknowledge it could pass as her sleeping schedule from the glory days - it worked like an 8-hour clockwork, enabling her to rest properly without issues.

That made it way stranger for her to wake up sitting in bed with Lena calling and shaking her by the shoulders, looking quite concerned.

“Amé! Finally, are you alright?” There was a hint of panic in Lena’s eyes, despite the clear relief in seeing her awake. She took her hands off Amélie’s shoulders quickly, fearing she might feel overwhelmed.

Was she alright? Amélie took a moment to assess herself. She was exhausted, her throat and eyes were dry, but otherwise everything seemed to be in order. “I… Yes. What happened? Did I oversleep?”

The room was still dark, but there was some light coming from the window. It was probably still breaking dawn, a couple of hours before she usually woke up.

“No, love - you were sitting here on your own, closing and opening your hand and looking at it like you were dead, you didn’t even blink!”

“What?” Amélie took a glance at her hand, inevitably, then back at Lena. “No, I was sleeping. I wasn’t even dreaming of anything…”

“Yeah, I thought it was a sleepwalking situation, but since when do you have that?” She was fidgeting, still very anxious. “Then you wouldn’t wake up and it really freaked me out.”

Nothing of that situatiation made sense, except the very visible fact that Lena needed a hug to calm down. Amélie opened her arms slowly to invite her to it, feeling how her bones felt like there was lead weighing them down. What the fuck? “I don’t know what that was about, but I’m here now. Come,  _ ma coeur. _ ”

She didn’t need to ask twice, and soon Lena was holding onto her like a lifeline. They both heard a low chirp from the headboard, and Emily was hopping closer to snuggle with them.

“She saw you doing weird stuff and woke me up” Lena raised her head and gave Emily a grateful smile. “And by that I mean, she sang right into my ear full force. It’s still ringing…”

“I would’ve liked to see that.” Amélie snickered, especially at the indignant face Lena made.  _ Merci,  _ Emily _. _ Hop in here, will you?”

She didn’t need to ask twice, and Emily was soon tucking herself in between Lena’s collarbone and Amélie’s chest.

They stood like this for a long while, enough for all of them to get comfortably drowsy. That was when Amélie’s phone buzzed from the nightstand and woke her up again. Who the hell programmed their servers to send ads this time in the morning, for god’s sake?! Unless they were ads for insomnia medicine, which would make the whole thing three times more evil.

In the middle of her musing, she took a real look at the phone, and realized it was a message coming from Angela’s number. That was weird. She never texted this time in the morning unless she was wasted drunk, and she never got wasted drunk on workdays.

Amélie stretched to try and grab the phone without disturbing the others, but every little movement was enough to catch a little bird’s attention. On the other hand, Lena seemed to be sleeping like a rock already, with the sweetest peaceful expression. Amélie dragged the phone closer with a finger until she could grab it properly, and unlocked it. Angela did send a message, and it was very worrisome.

**Angela**

_ Hi Amé _

_ Sorry for messaging at this time, but it’s quite urgent _

_ 4:21am _

_ Fareeha suffered an accident with a werewolf. I’m _

_ here with Ana in the hospital. Things are stable, but _

_ Ana’s not dealing well with this. She thinks it’s partly her fault. _

_ Can you bring Lena here when you wake up? If _

_ anyone can cheer Ana up, it’s her _

_ 4:22am _

_ I’ll keep you updated if anything happens! _

_ 4:25am _

Well, fuck. Amélie knew that if she woke Lena up right now, she’d want to run out the door and to the hospital partially asleep, tripping in her own pajamas. She was always a wreck when she had to wake up in the middle of the night then couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. If Fareeha was cared for, then Ana could certainly wait for an hour or two, right?  
  


\--  
  


One might wonder how Angela Ziegler came to know of Fareeha Amari’s unfortunate state, if she didn’t even work in the hospital she was in. That was easily explained by the fact the respected doctor kept tabs on the Amari mother since she discovered she was in town, just as Ana did with Angela after Lena’s incident with the timestream. A witch and a protector can’t be caught unprepared, after all.

Some time before the messages were sent to Amélie, the room annexed to Fareeha’s was silent. Ana watched through the glass as the doctor talked to Reinhardt while checking data on the equipment attached to her daughter, who was still immersed in deep, troubled sleep. The hours didn’t pass at all. How long would it last?

“So, how is she?”

Ana turned ready to fire her rifle, only she had to leave it with the police officers when she entered the hospital. She quickly corrected her posture and stared with harsh eyes at a thoughtful Angela Ziegler sporting a medical gown like she was an ordinary doctor, except she wasn’t. Ana measured up and down before she even considered talking. Would it be wrong if she tried to exorcise the witch out of the place? Would the doctor and the wolf next room notice it, through the glass?

“What do you want?” Was all she said, turning her back in disdain.

“To offer my sympathies, my dear. I know how hard it is to see a daughter like that.”

“Oh  _ you  _ know?” Ana whipped back to her. “After what you did in Adlesbrunn?!”

Angela raised an eyebrow, and slowly her features curved into a twisted smile.

“She was already dead, my dear alchemist, and that was when you didn’t stick by my heels so much for us to get familiar with each other. This one” She gestured vaguely towards the glass “is alive.”

“I’m not making a deal with you for my daughter’s life.” Ana spat the words like they were acidic, and got up to Angela’s level. The gall… She’d never forget how her daughter, a proud knight, was reduced to a mindless zombie servant because the witch wanted to get on her nerves. She talked about it like a trivial matter now but oh, some things just couldn’t scar that easily over time. She wasn’t even a bit like Lena on that matter.

“I know I couldn’t tempt you to. I’m really here to offer sympathies this time, believe it or not.” She shrugged. “Besides, she’s clearly not going to die.”

Ana wasn’t going to admit it, but hearing this from a witch that dealt with life and death for centuries was way more reassuring than all the probability talk from the doctors. She didn’t relax, though. She didn’t even avert her gaze.

Inside the adjacent room, Reinhardt laughed wholeheartedly. They couldn’t really hear it. 

“What do you want, Mercy?” Ana repeated.

“You wouldn’t happen to know a famous, experienced monster hunter, would you?”

Ana frowned. That was an uncharacteristically upfront request, and an odd one. Monster hunters would’ve been more common some centuries ago, when people effectively tried to kill everything they didn’t understand. Now the focus was different. “What, do you have a manticore problem?”

“Me? Not really. I know some people who do, though. They could really use the help.” The way she grinned at the last word told Ana all she needed to know about the nature of it. Honestly, she didn’t really mind Angela making deals if they were reasonable. It was people’s right to be dumb and lose an arm if they really wanted to - the problem started when things got fucked for everyone, which was something that happened fairly often as a result. 

“Well I’m sorry, I can’t help you there.” Ana shook her head and turned back to the window. 

Angela sighed theatrically.

“Not even if I take the lycanthropy out of your precious Fareeha?”

There it was. Ana knew it would come out eventually, it always did. She clenched her teeth and fists, angry at herself for considering it - because it was tempting, it always was. She had seen the kind of miracles Angela could perform, but she also knew she couldn’t trust her. Ana knew she was rusty compared to her glory days of being a protector, hunting whatever monster Angela wanted would be a challenge… But Fareeha was worth it… 

But would she approve of it, when she woke up? Even if Ana covered all the possible loose ends of a deal with a witch, would it be the right thing to do?

“I can’t do it.” Ana shook her head.

“Really?” Angela settled beside Ana near the glass, leaning her back on it. It always amused her how mortals couldn’t see her when she wasn’t really corporeal, but Ana could. “It’s not even a shady deal, this time! I could tell you aaaall the specifics.” She shuckled with herself.

“Of course, you always do.” Ana rolled her eyes, but quickly sobered up again. “No, Mercy. It’s final. If she has to become a werewolf... So be it. I won’t try to control what I shouldn’t.”

“Ugh, so moral.” Angela shrugged, turning away from the glass. “She’s rubbing off on you.”

That brought a tender smile to Ana’s lips. She wasn’t sure if Angela knew it, but that was a huge compliment to her, being just a bit like Fareeha. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the glass, sighing. “I certainly hope so.” She whispered, then raised her voice again. “And If you’re going to stay around and bother me, at least do it physically so I don’t look like a mad hag talking to myself!”

Angela laughed. 

Yeah, she’d stick around for a bit. Ana needed the company.  
  


\--  
  


“What are you doing here?”

The fact Ana would still scold Lena like her mother when she walked in was a good sign, if a harsh one. Not being apathetic was a good start.

“A little bird told me!” She replied, grinning shamelessly.

Ana furrowed her brow. “Emily? How could she--”

Amélie, who was walking in that instant, gave her a sharp look, but the damage was done.

“Hm? Emily?” Angela raised from her chair behind Ana, looking very curious. “Did she contact you? Did you hear anything about her?”

Before Lena could say anything and ruin their story with her notorious bad lying, Amélie sighed and looked remarkably sad at her cousin’s words. “No, it’s been almost a year already. We think she’s cut contact because she wants us to move on.”

“How could she think that!” Lena shook her head. “But she’s not why we’re here. Ana, how are you, how’s Fari?”

It was time for Ana to sigh, and point to a glass window they didn’t notice at first. They approached, Lena putting a hand gently on Ana’s back. Fareeha was still asleep, and Reinhardt was still sitting on a chair by her side like a guard dog.

“This wait is killing me.” Ana whispered. “She’s suffering.”

“How long did the doctors estimate she’s going to be like this?” Lena lowered her voice not to startle Fareeha, unaware that the people on the other side couldn’t really hear her.

“It’s different from person to person.” Angela entered the conversation. “It can range from hours to a couple of days.”

Lena nodded. “And who’s that guy? He’s huge!”

“He’s the designated werewolf to help her through the change.” Angela told her. Ana crisped her lips.

“So it’s going to be okay, right? He knows what he’s doing, he’ll keep her safe!”

“That’s the idea.” Angela patted her on the shoulder.

“Ana, I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t stay for much longer.” Amélie approached gingerly, taking a look at the other room. “I came to drop Lena by, but I have to go to work.”

Ana shook her head. “Of course. Thank you for coming in the first place.”

“Guess I’ll use the opportunity and take my leave as well.” Angela smiled comprehensively. “I’m going to better research werewolves and come back when I’m able, Ana.”

If she wasn’t specifically watching for the reaction, she would’ve missed the death glare Ana gave her for a second. 

“There’s no need for that, dr. Ziegler.”

“I insist. Well, goodbye you two. Hang in there!”  
  


\--  
  


Outside, before each of them went for their cars, Amélie asked Angela if there was a history of somnambulism on their family that she knew of. The answer was no, there wasn’t, but why was she asking about it? Did she have an episode? Amélie had no choice but to tell her what happened earlier. Angela, in turn, told her isolated episodes like that could be caused by stress, and it would be good if she told her doctor about it - which was obviously a joke, as she was her doctor.

They didn’t go into a lot of detail on the subject, after all they were still at the hospital’s garage and Angela would need to make a proper evaluation first. She asked Amélie to swing by the clinic soon, instead, they could certainly squeeze an appointment on her schedule. A visit home to tell how things were doing would be nice too, since she never went there anymore.

Amélie was quick to point out Angela was always working when she tried to socialize, and that drew a chuckle out of her. She was right, of course.

They parted on that note, each of them searching for their cars. Angela was adjusting the rearview mirror when Amélie’s car passed by her and she watched it go away, distracted. When it stopped by the exit gate and how slowly it opened, a small bird darted inside through the open front window, which, oddly enough, closed after its passage.

Now  _ that _ was interesting.  
  


\--  
  


**Lena**

_ How’s she doing, chérie? _

_ 5:02pm _

_ She’s got a nasty high fever and she can’t  _

_ stay still in bed, but she’s still unconscious.  _

_ Reinhardt says she’s going to turn _

_ any moment now. _

_ 5:03pm _

Amélie let out a long sigh. She was exhausted after the last practice. Thankfully it was the last of the day, because it felt like a truck ran over her when she wasn’t looking. It might even have happened while she was asleep sitting in bed, who knew what she’d got up to before the girls woke her up? She could’ve even robbed a bank for all she knew.

She wondered idly if anyone could do something that complex while sleepwalking. It would be quite the thing.

She grabbed her water bottle and took a big swig. The sun was midway down, bathing the practice room in a warm orange light. It was beautiful and somewhat bittersweet - it reminded her of walking with Gérard in Annecy until the sun was down, when they usually went for some good wine and dinner. It brought a smile to her lips. His sharp, unexpected remarks on those sidewalks amused her to this day. Such a perfect Don Juan goofball, he was. Such a perfect man.

She had to take her girlfriends there someday. They’d love it. She wasn’t really sure about staying at the chateau, though, with her parents around...

A shadow blocked the sun abruptly, catching her attention. Someone was standing there in front of the glass wall, framed by the sunlight. Before she could make sense of their features a flash of blinding light forced her to look away and close her eyes.

“Hello there, Amélie.” the stranger’s voice was bright, almost excited. “You want something from me.”

Even though she had her eyes shut, the light filtering through her eyelids made everything orange and pink like she had a lamp right before her face - then it faded, and even though she had the urge to open her eyes and take a better look at the guy, she didn’t. There was something forming in her view in the exact same way an image persists when you look it in the light and then close your eyes. An animal, it seemed. A wolf, and the waning moon.

When Amélie finally opened her eyes again she was alone in the sunlit room, with the thrilling and very confusing notion that a Greek God just tried to communicate something to her. Why did he have to be so cryptic, though?

She sighed. She’d better call Lena…  
  


\--  
  


Lena couldn’t answer the phone at the moment. She was too absorbed in watching the other room to pay attention to it, tucked in her backpack. 

Fareeha was turning. 

“Easy, Fareeha, don’t fight it!” Reinhardt held her shoulders down on the stretcher as her limbs tried to flail violently, still held by the silver-threaded restraints.

Her teeth elongated and sharpened. Her wide eyes went from dark brown to unnaturally shiny yellow, darting around. Her nails pierced the mattress as she held to it for her life.

An acute pain hit her spine like a thousand burning needles. She screamed and tried to lunge up, but Reihardt was able to hold her down, despite her efforts to break free. The stretcher shook dangerously with every pull.

Her sight went dark, then red. Her skin was on fire.

“It’s going to pass, child…”

Fareeha felt as if she was being crushed by a giant invisible hand, only to be stretched after. She heard the sick sound of it, she could smell the blood among the synthetic, unnatural smells. Everything hurt. 

Why did everything hurt?!

_ “It’s going to pass…” _

She had to get out.

For the people looking from the other side of the glass - Ana, a couple of nurses and a doctor - it was all too fast. For Lena, though, it all unfolded naturally, due to her powers: when there was a blur of movement from Fareeha and the restraints on her right wrist broke, Lena’s eyes and brain adjusted to the speed of the following events just as they did when she was blinking around: she saw Fareeha swipe at Reinhardt with huge claws, and how he let go of her to dodge. He grabbed her wrist and forced it down, veins popping on his arms at the effort - and then silver fur emerged, his size increased, his whole shape changed: in mere moments a massivewhite-silver werewolf stood in his place, trying to hold Fareeha down, and she wasn’t too keen on letting him get away with it.

Where his change looked smooth and natural, hers looked painful: one leg looked lupine, the other didn’t; patches of fur emerged unevenly all over her skin; sometimes the silver on the remaining restraints seemed to cause some sort of burning where it touched her skin…

Reinhardt barked something as she tried to bite him with a malformed muzzle, and it made her go batshit crazy: She started snapping furiously at his arms in order to make him let go of her, and suddenly the change began accelerating rapidly - she turned into a black werewolf and broke free of the remaining restraints like they were made of paper, and leapt at Reinhardt, tackling him to the floor.

What everyone else saw was a blur of black and white, increasing splatters of blood throughout the room and medical equipment being pushed aside roughly. What Lena saw was the most vicious and terrifying dogfight ever, with Reinhardt on the defensive, taking a lot of blows as he didn’t want to hurt Fareeha. She ended up on top of him, a whirlwind of claws and teeth tearing at his arms in an attempt to get to his face and end the fight.

He was experienced, though. He only needed one opening to use his vast strength to throw her aside, near the wall. Before she could do anything about it, he grabbed her by the back of her head and slammed it against the wall, so hard people on the other side could hear the muffled sound.

She fell down like a sack of potatoes and Reinhardt sat by her side, whining from pain.

“I’m sorry…” He turned her gently so she’d be facing up, and watched as her form slowly changed back to a battered human woman hanging between consciousness and fainting. He took her in his arms effortlessly and brought her back to the bed(now on the side of the room) putting her down with all the care in the world.

When he finally looked around to assess the damage, he saw the horrified faces of the people outside.   
  
_ Ah, right…  _

He motioned for them to come into the room, sighing. He then concentrated on how being human felt to him: his stature, his awesome hair, his skin and hands and booming voice.

He changed back to his human form right as the door was opened - it was great to have a bunch of fresh air come inside - and the next thing he saw was an umbrella moments before it made contact with his face, swung by Ana Amari.

"You hurt her!" She exclaimed, hitting him again until Lena held her arm. "Ana what the fuck!?"

"Ma'am drop this umbrella right now!" One of the nurses grabbed hold of Ana’s other arm firmly. . “C’mon, let’s get you to the other room!!”

She tried to pull her away, but Ana didn’t budge. Instead she kept staring at Reinhardt with unbridled rage, and shook her arm out of Lena’s grasp.

The doctor and the other nurse had frozen when they saw Ana swing at Reinhardt, but seeing as she seemed to have no further plans to assault him, they turned their attention back to taking care of Fareeha.

Reinhardt stood still, despite just being assaulted a dubious metallic “rod”. A small stream of blood trickled down to pool on his eyebrow from a small cut on his forehead.

“Yes, you’re right, and I apologize.” He wiped the blood from his brow and looked at it for a split second. The cut was closing already. “She was in newborn frenzy - there was no other way.”

“So you had to  _ hit her head against the wall?!” _

“I had to incapacitate her. She’ll be okay in a couple of hours, we wolves regenerate extremely fast--”

With her newly freed arm, Ana pulled Reinhardt down to her level, making both Lena and the nurse react to contain her. Instead, she started talking in a quick, different language that Lena thought sounded like arabic, but a bit different from what she usually heard from her.   
  
Reinhardt’s eyes widened, his irises flashed with silver light.   
  
“Tell me the truth, old man” She said under her teeth.

“I had to incapacitate her” He repeated. “Newborn werewolves are extremely dangerous if they enter post-turning frenzy. She would’ve ripped my arms off and then torn apart everything and everyone until shetired herself out, and only then she would revert to her human self. I couldn’t risk it.”

Ana squinted, keeping eye contact for a moment more - then let go of him and marched towards the stretcher to take a better look at her daughter, the nurse still holding her arm. There was a huge purple bruise on Fareeha’s forehead and some scratches on her cheeks, but they seemed to be healing at an astonishing pace, acquiring that sickly yellow tint already.

“We’re going to have to check her brain for damage after that slam.” The doctor said, taking a step back, clearly afraid Ana would hit him too.

“I’m going with you.”

It wasn’t a request.

Reinhardt watched that exchange and sighed. “I did explain things could get violent, but I understand why she’s mad.”

“Fari is her only child.” Lena put a hand on his arm. “She’s got this careless attitude most of the time, but when it comes to Fareeha, she’s super protective.”

“She’s a strong woman.”

“They both are,” She nodded.

While the doctor and the nurse were removing the stretcher with Fareeha from the room, Ana walked alongside it, holding on to her hand. She took a quick glance at Lena and Reinhardt before turning around and exiting the room. It felt as if it had been a very long time since she had seen the corridor, but she knew it had only been hours. As usual it was full of movement, mostly staff coming and going in quick steps. 

A slight movement in the hand she was holding made her turn her eyes back to the stretcher. Fareeha was groggily opening her eyes, blearily looking around until her eyes settled on her.

“Mother…?”

It was the most beautiful sight and sound in the world for Ana. She felt the first genuine smile since this ordeal began, spread across her face. She squeezed the arm she was holding and caressed it softly

“I’m here,  _ habibti. _ It’s alright.”

And then she knew: it would really be alright. If anything, she’d make it so.  
  


\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta thank Rhitta for beta reading and massively improving the words on this one! English is scary but you won against it! =D


	7. Searching

_Wolves._

_Wolves in Ancient Greece._

_Wolves in Greek Myths._

_Werewolves in Ancient Greece._

Why would Apollo grace Amélie with the image of a wolf and nothing else, if he was trying to send a message? It made it very difficult to search for clues online.

There weren’t all that many references to wolves in the greek myths. Apollo had some relation to them as Apollo Lykaion, the god of the wolves, but the cult to him in this form wasn’t really… Helpful, for the trio. It could’ve involved human sacrifice and possibly cannibalism. Or wolf sacrifice. Did he want one of those? If he did, he’d be disappointed - they weren’t about to go killing anything soon. Much less eating the flesh right out of it. Gross!

Looking for something else, the most prominent myth was that of the cruel king Lycaon, who tried to make Zeus eat the flesh of his youngest son as a test. Zeus was furious (rightly so, for once!) struck down all his remaining sons and daughters with lightning(not rightly so, possibly?) and turned him into a wolf. That was where the word lycanthropy came from, by the way: Lycaon. 

It was more a tale of how the ancient Greek were twisted and Zeus could do anything he wanted than an insight to what Apollo could’ve wanted, to be honest. And what was that about wolf-related stuff and eating people’s flesh? Did the Greek think all the cannibals were werewolves? That would’ve made Hannibal Lecter even more terrifying, if it was true.

Amélie facepalmed very hard when Lena voiced those thoughts.

“But Amé, hear me out!” Lena trailed after Amélie, struggling to keep the laughter out of her words. “Maybe it’s a clue that if we feed Em chicken she’ll be struck by lightning and come back as a woman!”

The groan from the kitchen was so full of exaggerated pain it sounded like someone just hit Amélie’s diaphragm with a baseball bat.

“Lena that’s terrible!”

“Em doesn’t think so - look, she’s laughing!”

Amélie didn’t need to look, she heard the loud bird song that resembled laughter; but by not looking she missed Emily tucked on Lena’s chest pocket, lazy and adorable, so it was her loss really.

“That’s because you two are dorks.”

“You love us.”

Amélie turned to face them, an eyebrow raised and a steaming mug of coffee in hand. “The fact we share a house and a bed in _London_ , of all places, is actually a great misunderstanding.”

“Oh yeah? How so?” Lena tilted her head with a fake innocent look. Emily mimicked the gesture, even though the expression part wasn’t really discernable.

"When I asked for a sweet release from my suffering, you definitely weren't what was on my mind." She gave them a small, cynical smile and took a sip from her coffee. "I was thinking more death, less exquisite and loving wives, you know."

"Heh, you got what's coming to you!" Lena tried to sound all cocky and cool, but she couldn't really hide the silly grin on her face. She liked the sound of that… Wives… Lena Guillard Oxton, maybe? It was fancy. It also clashed, though.

Emily flew from her shoulder to Amélie's, and rubbed her head on her neck. Wives, eh? Good thing she was a bird, Amélie couldn't see the look on her face; but also bad thing she was a bird, she couldn't take her in her arms, spin and make her lose all that composure.

"So, coming back to the wolf issue" Amélie pet Emily lightly. "Should we bother Ana with it, now that it's been a week?"

"I don't know, maybe she's still tired of it, with her daughter turning into--" Lena stopped, then frowned.

"He's not allowed to mess with Fareeha, she's part of a different faith." Amélie quickly replied. They'd been over this before; it was too much of a coincidence that Apollo showed Amélie a wolf in the same evening Fareeha was mauled, but Emily was adamant in telling them that gods messing with a mortal that's taken by a different pantheon was a big no-no. It was one of the few things all the gods agreed on.

"Yeah, I know that. But maybe he wants something possibly harmless?"

"Like what?"

"Dunno, banging her?"

Amélie almost choked on her coffee. "Now that's _you_ you're thinking about, _chérie_."

"But that's the thing - these gods do love to bang loooots of pretty people! Maybe he wants us to set her up for a date?"

"Because she doesn't have more pressing matters to tend to, of course."

Lena shrugged. "Well, it's a theory. Do _you_ have any?"

"Yes. We should seek someone who knows what they're talking about, like Ana." She chuckled, putting the empty mug aside.

"She can't be the only one, though. There must be someone who-- wait. I know someone who might know about someone!"

\--

It went a bit like this: Lena called the precinct, explained who she was and asked to talk to captain Sojourn, because it could be a matter related to the recovering officer Amari. Sojourn picked up the phone with the same bored curiosity she had when last they talked; she knew Lena wouldn't call if it wasn't serious - especially because she was almost certainly not informing Fareeha when going on "jobs" like she should - but she knew the girl was more clever than people gave her credit for, and maybe she was merely using the opportunity.

Sojourn listened closely to the retelling of Amélie's brief encounter with a supposed deity, and how she had a vision with a wolf in it. They didn't know what it could mean, and they were worried about the deity's words.

Sojourn thought Lena would possibly ask her professional opinion on it, or ask for people to put some wards on her and Amélie, maybe on their robin as well for good measure. She didn't expect the actual question: _“Do you know anyone who can interpret these visions? A seer? Like, one specialized in Greek stuff? We don't want to bother Ana right now.”_

She paused for a moment, considering her words. That was… Interesting. It was flattering that she was the first person they thought of contacting when their trusted friend wasn't available, but thing was, they could've found this information online: there were websites for the organizations in charge of different cults, and surely they could find the services of Greek seers there.

 _“If they have to do with Fareeha, be sure to tell me”_ Sojourn asked, gravely. “ _I will do anything in my power to help her._ ”

\--  


Fareeha looked at the plate exasperated, then at Reinhardt.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" She asked, shyly.

"Yes. You have to build strength, and from now on meat will be part of your essential diet, Fareeha. I'm sorry."

She looked at the plate again: there was a big steak on it. Any other day the smell of it would've made her stomach turn, but now her mouth was watering… It was insulting! She’d been a vegetarian for a good part of her life because she couldn’t stand the smell, the taste, the texture of meat, and the fact it had been a living thing once didn’t help at all. Did it live a good life? Did it know it was going to die, and felt the pain?

Now she had to eat what was left of it, and her stomach couldn’t wait. 

Was that really the only way?

“Couldn’t she start with something easier, Reinhardt? The girl doesn’t eat meat since she was thirteen.”

He looked confused. “Easier? I asked them to have the steak well-made…”

“Why don’t we try ground beef? I could have it mixed with rice and some other grains, it’ll be easier to swallow.” Ana searched her daughter’s expression for hints of confirmation, but she kept staring at the plate. She didn’t feel like explaining her struggles didn’t lie in those things at the moment. It would require strength she didn't really have.

The Hillthorn Education Center for the Newly Changed was a place with a big name and a simple function: teaching and easing the change into a healthy - and civil - lifestyle for people who recently acquired lycanthrophy. It was a Victorian mansion in the middle of nowhere surrounded by woodland, and also the place where all of the werewolves of England came to be certified in order to be able to return to society. Fareeha was there for only one week and she was sure it would drive her crazy before she could get out.

She was still staring at the steak on her plate, contemplating the fact that if she ate it, she’d really be confirming to the world her old self was gone, and there was now a wolf in its place. Would she even be allowed back in the police department like this? Would her colleagues fear her - and would it be justified?

“Fareeha.”

The sound startled her. “Y-yes mother?”

“You don’t need to eat it for now.” 

Ana put a hand over hers on the table and gave her a knowing look. She'd seen her daughter spiralling before, and she wasn't willing to let it happen again, not while she was going through this - Ana could be a lot of things, but she wasn't cruel. It wasn't the moment for tough love.

Still, she wasn't very good at showing affection. There was a modest desire to hold Fareeha, put her head on her lap and massage her scalp like she did when she was a side, but it felt inappropriate in her view. She respected the strength her daughter displayed, and she wouldn't make it so she wanted to lay down and give up now.

Fareeha looked her deep in the eye for a moment, then averted her gaze. “Thanks.” 

She got up and looked around the cafeteria and its huge windows. There was no one there but them, staff and some doctors eating on the other end of the room. That clinic was so empty…

“I’m going back to my room.” She announced shyly.

Ana exchanged a worried look with Reinhardt. His serene expression seemed to say _give her some time._

\--  


There was a disappointingly commonality to the office Lena and Amélie were sitting in. One would think a Greek seer would work in big marble temples with life-like reliefs depicting gods and heroes, or at least in a place that looked old and full of secrets. They were in an office that couldn’t be more than two years old, embellished with abstract art prints on the white walls. They sat on cushions over an expensive-looking carpet and watched as the pale seer hummed and lit up a small recipient with essential oils on a side table, made some quick gestures before it and turned back to them, sitting down with a grunt.

"Are you ready?" She asked, eyes locked on Amélie.

"Yes." 

The seer put a couple of leaves in her mouth and chewed, asking for Amélie's hand. She stared at it for a second before obliging, and when bony, cold fingers closed around her hand, a sort of vibration passed from the seer's hand to hers. It was peculiar - not strong enough to hurt, but deep enough to be felt between the fibers of her muscles like ingrained roots.

The initial shock of it made Amélie tense up, prompting Lena to hold her other hand. Such a warm, soft grip was always welcome.

"Tell me again what you want clarified, miss Guillard." The seer asked quietly.

"I want to know what the wolf and the waning moon mean." 

The seer closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, still chewing on the leaves. The smell of sandalwood filled the air.

For a moment everyone was silent, and the room was basked in that ethereal atmosphere. Amélie tried not to think much of it - was the wait normal? Would she find an answer? - and Lena tried to be reasonable and not wait for an anime possession with glowing eyes and distorted voices. It was proving hard for her.

"There's a caged wolf in a drowned land" the seer whispered in a tone completely different from her previous one - it was like she was talking while sleeping. "set on display like a trophy for an emperor of images and veils. Its howls ache for the moonlight and the woods where it was free."

So they had to free a wolf from a rich person somewhere? Well, why couldn't Apollo say it in the first place instead of giving them a half-assed image?

The seer continued.

"The ties that bind are tugging, the song in darkness plays; for soul and beast and woman, the claws would love to slay."

She shuddered and groaned, letting go of Amélie's hand quite abruptly.

"Are you okay?!" Lena froze in place, not sure if she should do something or it was part of the divination thing.

Luckily, the seer opened her eyes and straightened herself, sighing.

"It's done" She shook her head, looking very tired. "Apologies for the abrupt ending, severing the divine link isn't always smooth. Now, do you think it helped clear your view on the issue?"

It did, but it didn't really make it any easier on them: they had to search for rich people who kept wolves in drowned lands - what was up with that part? Was it a swamp? A house in a lake, like hers? Somewhere underwater? - and find a way to set said wolf free, despite the gates and alarms that certainly were in place.

Piece of cake!

Wait. Could they hire a high-tier thief in the black market…?

\--  


Brigitte sighed out loud and let herself flop on the chair like a sad sack of potatoes. She’d been working on a contraption since the morning, a commissioned hand cannon that opened, closed and lighted-up for a cosplay. She loved how it was turning out, the movement of the metallic plates was smooth and the lights turned on at the right time. It was still a little fragile, though, and she’d have to find a better solution to attach the lamps and wires on it than the materials she was currently using. For now she was done with it; the sun was starting to set, and her eyes were having trouble focusing. It was time to go take a long warm bath and go eat something. Her mouth watered at the very thought of dinner…

One of her cats, a calico named Gadget, jumped on her work table. Brigitte was quick to take the cannon out of his way and into a box she locked afterwards. She knew her cat; he would bat it out of the table and throw it around on the floor.

“Oh don’t you think about it, sir!” She glared at Gadget. “I didn’t forget about that visor!”

Gadget laid on the table, staring back like he dared her to accuse his unquestionable innocence once again, in a way only cats can do. Needless to say, a moment later Brigitte was grabbing and kissing him while he tried desperately to make an undignified run for his life.

“Briiiiigs!”

Hana walked in shouting and startled Brigitte, who accidentally knocked out a box of screws. Gadget used the distraction and darted out of the room.

“Brigs! Emily was trying to seduce me!” She put her hands on her waist and stared, outraged.

Brigitte blinked. “Emily? Like, Emily the _bird_ Emily?!”

“Yeah!”

Okay, that was very unexpected. Brigitte didn’t know what to say to that. “What?”

“Yeah, I was there - oh I see you, you little scoundrel!” She pointed up to the robin gliding through the door and landing gracefully on the worktable, chirping to Brigitte in acknowledgement. “I was playing _Undertale_ again, the battle with Metaton - you know how addictive the soundtrack is - then Em started DANCING on my LAP, Brigitte! Do SOMETHING! She’s a PERV!”

“ _What?”_

The old radio on the side of the table came to life with a song, _Billie Jean by Michael Jackson_ , and Emily started shaking her tail, opening and closing her wings and swinging her head back and forth. Then she started moonwalking. Brigitte _never_ _ever_ saw a bird moonwalking, and she didn’t think she’d see it again.

Hana started laughing uncontrollably, and from what looked like, Emily did too.

Brigitte was still completely lost.

“Can you _please_ tell me what’s going on?!” She cried out in despair.

“You should see your face!” Hana was struggling to take a picture and hold the laughter and her hurting stomach. 

“It’s-- It’s a joke, that’s it?”

“Yes, silly!” 

She facepalmed and groaned. Hana approached and hugged her, still giggling, and started kissing her face until she was giggling as well.

“For real, though - we came to see if you want to play anything. You’ve been here the whole day, I’m feeling lonely!”

“Like you didn’t stay a lot of the day here with your Switch, huh?” Brigitte gave her an amused look and stood up, taking Hana with her with no effort.

“Details.” She winked. “So, you’re in?”

“Let me take a bath first.”

\--

Hana was zapping through the channels, waiting for Brigitte to come out of the bath. It was amazing how the TV never seemed to have anything good on when you needed it… 

Emily was sitting on the pillow by her side, enjoying her lazy time. She’d been out the whole day, flying adrift at first, until she found herself perched on a tree near street dancers on a school field. They were having so much fun practicing their moves… She watched them train, tire, stop for some rest and food and then train again. She saw them going away and stood still there on the branch until they were no longer in sight, and she realized the reason she went out in the first place wasn’t only the restlessness of being home too much - she was missing work, seeing artists all around the globe, giving pointers no one would hear but they could follow if they wanted. It was still in her core, she was still a muse. So what could she do but act like one? 

The rest of the morning was spent flying around, searching for the places she used to appear at when she could just do it instead of flying. She wasn’t very lucky with that for a series of reasons: timing, spatial localization, the different method of travelling... She could still feel the energy and she was stubborn, though, so she found a couple of new places with new people. It helped with the frustration and sadness a bit.

When her wings were tired and her stomach was considering eating itself, Emily landed on a fence and noticed she knew that neighborhood, Brigitte’s house wasn’t that far. She was lucky to catch Hana and she being adorable, and they were happy to see her.

Hana stopped for about three seconds on a channel showing an old cartoon in it, then lost interest and zapped to the next channel. It had three puppies running on a field towards a big black man with his back to the camera. They jumped on him and he let himself fall to the side, laughing.

“Is that mr. Ogundimu?” Hana frowned, leaning forward despite the fact it wouldn’t help her see better at all.

That caught Emily’s attention. It did look like him.

“Oh, it is! I didn’t know he liked dogs!”

The scene switched to an interview: Ogundimu petting a German Shepard talking about his love of dogs. It was sweet to see how his face lighted-up at the mention of them, and how a chow-chow and a Beagle simply jumped on him in the middle of the talking. Hana finally put the remote down and enjoyed the entertainment.

_“Akande has lots of dogs and loves them equally, but one stands out among the pack…”_

The silhouette of a dog passed through high grass. The camera zoomed into its black paws walking, on its pale blue eyes... Then, in all its might, the dog jumped in a beautiful take on slow motion - except it wasn’t a dog, but a wolf. A majestic creature of lustrous black fur undulating against the wind, and a single silver mark on its forehead, in the shape of a moon.

Emily stood up and leaned forward, just like Hana did before.

The scene progressed to show the wolf running at a normal pace, but quickly changed to a night setting.

“ _Atlas is very special.”_   
  
And in the night setting, the wolf slowly changed from pitch black to the purest snow-white, with a black moon on its forehead.

That was _definitely_ the wolf they were searching for.

Emily didn’t think; she took flight and almost hit the glass part of the window as she darted out, with Hana shouting after her wanting to know what was going on. 

She was completely aware her eagerness to get home and tell her girlfriends made the trip last forever, despite Brigitte's house being fairly near theirs. She flew even faster to compensate. When she arrived, though, they weren't back ye, which only built the anticipation. _C'mon girls, where are you?_

She flew into the living room and saw Baguette raise her head and jump on top of the couch to greet, her like she usually did. Bless her, she was the sweetest kitten! Emily slowed down and descended planning to land by her side, but suddenly Baguette puffed up, spooked.

Before Emily could turn and see what was going on, her body went completely unresponsive and she dropped like a potato on someone's hand.

"Well, well, look who found her way back into the game."

She couldn't see her, but that voice was unmistakable; she was helplessly on the hands of the Witch of the Wilds.

\--


	8. Dies Irae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Dies irae - Dies irae - Dies illa / The day of wrath, the day of wrath, that day  
>  Solvet saeclum in favilla / will break up the world into ash_

The last memory Emily had of the Houses was of standing on the stage in the ancient theatre, feeling the voracious eyes of five hundred muses or so sitting on the stone grandstand behind her. It was windy there, outdoors, and it felt even colder against the sweat on her skin. To think her mind was so wired on human behavior at the time, it even emulated sweat… She was so close to the humans she had to be punished, apparently, and as much as this was ridiculous in her opinion, she was terrified of her fate; but she concealed the shaking with a brave face, as she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of showing weakness.

Before her were the nine higher muses as well as Dike, looking down from a tribune. It was clear things were way more organized this time, opposed to her previous judgement... Such a good entertainment for the masses, she was. Maybe she should start demanding payment.

There were questions. Emily stated she stood by her actions, and would do it all again if it was necessary. The crowd erupted in mixed shouting she couldn’t and didn’t really want to discern. The sentence was reaffirmed.

After that, magic and darkness…

  
  


Emily opened her eyes to the theatre, out of her memories. It was empty this time, and crumbling - it looked a lot like its counterparts on the mortal world, the ones in ruins. She still couldn't move, and she felt the grip of the Witch's fingers on her body, faintly. She was completely numb, body and mind...

"Why did you call us here? We have more important things to do." A male voice sounded exasperated somewhere behind her. She was sure she knew who belonged to but she couldn't put a finger on it, in that state.

"Don't worry Max, I also didn't want to see you - it's a shame your higher muse isn't around, with the gift I found." The Witch sounded as snarky as the time they met on the timestream. 

Max…?

"Will it help our situation?" Another familiar voice she couldn't place.

"I wouldn't waste my time if I thought it wouldn't. Besides, it's bound to be entertaining…"

Emily was yanked from that spot as the Witch brought her hand in front of her, so everyone could see the prize. She ended up floating inches above her palm, staring at three familiar figures: her ex-superiors, one of them in the form of an omnic who now named himself Maximilien.

She felt like fainting, running away and also punching and screaming at them. Why did the Witch bring her there? What could she possibly want from her?!

“Where did you find her?” Maximilien asked, his soft robotic voice impressed and a little bit skeptical.

“Oh, I had to search whole forests. Moira made her untraceable, true, but she couldn’t hide her magic signature as well as she thought.” The Witch chuckled with herself, proud of her feat. Except it wasn’t true… 

“Does she understands us?” The second superior, the one always steadfast, took a step forward and analyzed Emily like a particularly exotic trinket. “I was under the impression she would be completely turned into a bird, and therefore useless.”

_ Oh, she’d show him who was useless… _

“She’s a bird, Petras, she eats worms and shits on people.” The Witch made Emily spin on herself, and her stomach didn’t like it one bit. “It doesn’t mean she has to remain like that.”

She snapped her fingers. Emily felt some kind of energy try to wash over her, but it was blocked violently and deflected. Her sensitive bird ears rang with the pitchy sound it produced, and the Witch gasped before she started laughing in delight, a sound disturbingly like Angela’s laughter. Was she really Angela after all? It seemed unlikely she was just using her image to these other people who didn’t even know her.

“Oh, that bitch. She put a failsafe on her little friend!” She picked Emily up on her hand again, turning her so they’d face each other. Her golden eyes glowed with excitement. “She won’t let you get back to a human form, huh? Good thing we don’t need it - we just need one where you’re able to talk.”

It felt as if she would implode. Every part of Emily’s body stretched and changed alarmingly, feathers fell by the dozens, limbs twisted and displaced, hair, teeth, fingers grew - and throughout the pain, she found herself with her face against the floor, drooling on her own ginger hair. It startled her, and she sat in a jolt; then she could see her nude, freckled chest, her arms sporting long red wings and the dark talons at the end of her fingers. She saw her lower body and how it was bird-like attached to her almost human upper half, and she gasped and shook and her mind distanced itself from the body, falling to a place where everything faded.

_ No no no no no no no no…! _

What was she?! What did the Witch do to her?!

She didn’t really know how long it took for her to come down to herself again, but the superiors looked spooked and hesitant, almost disgusted when she focused on them. When she turned to the Witch, though, she couldn’t be more relaxed.

“Do you remember how to talk, Emily?” She smiled. It was unnerving how satisfied it looked.

She tried a first time, but her throat hurt like sandpaper was grinding against it. A coughing fit later, she tried again: the words were coarse and low, but definitely clear. 

“ _ Fuck you. _ ” 

The Witch burst into laughter. “Well hello you too! I’m glad to see you didn’t lose your edge. How’s the bird life going?”

Emily stared at her. She would’ve stood, but she wasn’t really sure she had the strength in her legs.

“What… do you-- want?”

“Me? I wanted to see your pretty face again, of course. Maybe even tell your girlfriends about it later. The lady and these gentlemen, however, they want to ask you some questions.” She pointed to the other muses.”

Emily felt the sting but didn’t answer the taunt. She turned to the councilmen instead, and she hoped her face made them think twice before being assholes. She did have pretty sharp talons now.

“Yes, ahem.” The one now known as Petras cleared his throat and started. “You were the last person to enter Moira’s lab before she sealed it. We need to know everything about it.”

Moira’s lab? Yeah, she remembered how it looked like the most high tech torture room she ever entered (not to mention the only one) with all the machines, components and animals in cages. She assumed at the time it was just a witch thing, maybe Moira liked the stereotype. Now she thought it might’ve just been that she was the cruel asshole all along.

“What happened?” She dodged the question and motioned to the theater around, and the Houses beyond it. It looked like a war took place, the once beautiful and pristine buildings were all wrecked and the melancholy of it filled the air. 

Emily actually knew in general terms what was going on, as it was the main reason Terpsichore brought her back to Lena and Amélie hastily; but she could learn so much more playing the ignorant…

The superiors looked at each other briefly, hesitation clear in their expressions. Max shook his head. “Moira betrayed us. She vanished, sealed her lab, and then monsters started assaulting the Houses, knowing far too well how to dodge our defenses.”

“Then your Higher Muse hired me to take care of things.” Angela added, smug.

Maximilien kept talking like he was never interrupted. “If you care for you brothers and sisters, terpsichore, you should tell us all you know about that witch’s lair. We’re positive the answer to these monster surges are inside.”

His words met silence and reverbered faintly through the empty theatre. Emily stared at him with analytic eyes that changed from the frightened pale gray to a vibrant red in the blink of an eye, raising her eyebrows as if waiting for him to keep talking. Maybe he’d realize what he said before she lunged for his throat. Maybe the conflict made him an inch more agreeable than before.

It didn’t happen.

Slowly she stood up, planting her feet on the floor with a certainty she didn’t really have, and looked him deep in the eyes before finally speaking.

“Max.” The name felt sour In her lips. “I distinctly remember you screaming to the winds how insulting it was that I had a name. Feels good to have one now, doesn’t it?” She took a menacing step towards him. “You should thank me.”

“You should just answer my question.” He fiddled with the hem of his shirt, unimpressed.

“Should I? What are you going to do, turn me back into a bird?” She laughed, sour.

Max looked at the Witch for support, but she was sitting on her floating broom, immensely entertained. She wouldn’t help him.

“Thank her, Maximilien.” The last superior spoke, the only woman and the one who remained quiet so far.“We have no time for your ego.”

“ _ Maximilien? _ ” Emily snorted. That name was so snobbish, just like him...

This time, Max was offended. “I have  _ nothing _ to thank this transgressor for--”

“Oh well, I think I’ll go back to enjoying my punishment if you don’t want my help, then. Berries are especially sweet this season.” Emily shrugged, her eyes still fire-red, and then simply turned her back and started walking away.

“Wait! Emily!”

She stopped. It wasn’t Max who called but Petras; not what she wanted, but a small victory at least. “Yes?”

“These monsters are destroying the Houses, the place where once you belonged… Think of the muses who won’t be able to know it! We need your help.”

She took a deep breath and looked at him over her shoulder. “I know where my home is, and you took it away from me.”

He didn’t have a reply to that.

Something flew by and cast a huge shadow over them for a moment, enough to draw their attention upward. It was bigger than the sun, even though it seemed to be far enough for the details to be indistinguishable. It was greyish, though, with a streak of red on its wings and--

It was getting bigger.

It was a fucking dragon flying towards them.

“It’s back!” Max gasped and teleported away with no second thought, as it was expected of his cowardly ass. The other muses hesitated but followed. Emily looked at the Witch with urgency, eager to leave, but she didn’t look all that worried. 

“What are you doing, let’s go!”

“Can you fight, Emily?” She replied.

“What?”

She made a series of quick motions with her hands and pointed at Emily; again she felt herself stretch and break and change to something much bigger, but familiar somehow: a giant bird of crimson feathers that shone like metal in the sun, and a beak made of bronze that--

The dragon roared and spit a jet of corrosive drool towards them. The Witch was quick to ascend on her broom and dodge it, and Emily reflexively took flight to the opposite side.

The stone floor sizzled and melted where the spit landed. It could’ve been them, if they were careless...

Emily looked at that serpentine creature circling above and clenched her beak. It was preparing to spit another jet at her - she’d have to fight.  
  


\--

“Amélie? C’mon love, talk to me!”

Lena’s words were as clear as day to Amélie, but she couldn’t really answer them. For the past minutes it’d been like that - she was aware of everything around her, she felt Lena’s hands caressing her face or measuring her temperature, she smelled the lingering perfume in the seer’s apartment, but her body simply wasn’t reacting to anything. It was terrifying. At first she thought she’d somehow became a tetraplegic, but after freaking out about it for a while she realized it didn’t make sense, as she couldn’t even move her eyes to any direction(but thankfully they kept blinking). How long would she be like this?!  _ Please,  _ she couldn’t stay like this forever!

They were lucky to be walking out after the divination session when this happened. The seer helped take Amélie back in and lay her down on the couch, dissuading Lena from calling an ambulance to call the magic police instead, because what happened was unusual and definitely magical. She also had to endure a hundred questions about that very statement, as Lena tended to talk even more when she was anxious like that.

“Here, let me pass this over her.” the seer raised a small chain censer with a strong smell of myrrh coming of it, although Lena could smell charcoal and other stuff she couldn’t really discern.

She wasn’t too keen on leaving Amélie’s side but sure, it would only be a moment, so she took a step back and let the seer swing the censer over her girlfriend muttering words that sounded a lot like incantations. Lena would’ve found it very cool if they were in a different situation, but all she could do was pay attention to Amélie, worry and hope that the myrrh would somehow help… So it was particularly startling when Amélie raised her arm all of a sudden, trying to catch the censer that passed above her face a second before.

“What the--!” Lena gasped.

“ _ Fýge!” _ The seer shouted at Amélie full-force and a shockwave pushed the furniture back and caused Lena to shake up until her core; but to Amélie, nothing happened - she stood there with her arm up as she didn’t even notice the seer. Inside, though, she clawed at an unmoving door until her fingers bled, figuratively. She didn’t order her arm to move, or her head to turn from one side to the other, like it was doing at the moment.

_ Why can’t I control myself?! What is going on?! _

Her arm lowered slowly to rest beside her body. 

“Amélie…?” Lena whispered.

_ I’m here! Lena! LENA! _

The only sound escaping from her mouth was a short hum of acknowledgement, then she went completely limp. Before they could do anything else she gasped for air and turned to face them, completely terrified. Her eyes darted around, her hands searched her arms, shoulders, face, hair in a frantic motion, like she had to make sure everything was in its proper place.

“Amélie, are you back?” Lena tried again.

“I never left!” She shouted, her voice high-pitched with all the anguish it carried.

Lena immediately hugged her tightly, and the tears started rolling. “I couldn’t do anything” She mumbled. “I tried and called but my body didn’t do anything!”

“You’re here now” she replied. It was unclear if it was more to herself or to Amélie. “It’s going to be alright.”

“I’m scared...”

“I know. I am too -- b-but we called the magic police and I’m going to call Ana, everything will be alright, I promise!”

Amélie nodded eagerly, trying to concentrate on what she could feel in the moment - her body trembling against the soft couch, her skin feeling cold and clammy. She could feel Lena’s arms around her holding her close, she focused on Lena, the feeling of warmth slowly filling her, the smell of her hair, her voice whispering encouragement in her ear. 

She squeezed her a bit more. Her arms were obeying now. Her body was hers. Everything would be alright.

But what if she was pushed away again by whatever did it before?!

Air was suddenly very difficult to find.

Lena let go of the hug to hold her face near hers, serious. “Breathe, love. Breathe. Whatever it is, it’s gone.”

“But it can come back--”

A loud knock on the door interrupted her, followed by the announcement that it was the Magic Police on the other side. The seer darted for the door to welcome them in, and Lena saw a good opportunity there.

“See? The police’s here. If anyone can protect you, it’s them. Just focus on me, alright? And breathe.”

Amélie didn’t know if that was true, but she tried to focus on her lover. Lena was there. Everything would be alright.  
  


\--

Emily dragged her metallic wings on the floor, leaving a trail of deep red blood as she took painful steps forward. Over a wrecked statue behind her, the dragon shook in its last breaths, its tough hide slashed and pierced by countless feathers that stuck out like needles.

She slumped forward and shrieked in pain, doing what she could to keep her right side up, away from any direct contact with the floor. Green steam rose from her fuming side, a wound still being corroded by the dragon’s venom. It was a wonder it still didn’t get to her bones...

“You did such a good job.” The Witch appeared in front of her out of thin air, raising her beak and face like she wanted to take a better look at a delightful child. “I didn’t think you’d be such a fearsome beast, my dear. You’ve earned your due.”

The changing magic came again, turning Emily back into a shaking harpy, one who slipped, fell and curled up, trying to minimize the effects of the big hole in her right side and wing.

“Drink this.” The Witch all but forced a flask in her mouth, and the bitter liquid made her tongue instantly numb. “And let me see the wound.”

She inspected it with the speed and assertiveness only years and more years of practice could've given her, and clicked her tongue. Golden energy emanated from her palms to the wound, magically - and slowly - restoring the tissue. 

"Why… Why did you do this to me?" The words came out strangled from Emily's clenched jaw. She was sweating cold, or so a human watching the scene would see. It was way more complex with the amalgam of energies that composed the spirits.

"Because I wanted to know if you'd be a good fighter, of course. This place is in dire need of a guardian." She didn't take her eyes out of the healing task. "And, of course, to spite Moira. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to know her last pet project is now slaying the monsters she set to torment this place."

"I don't want this" she replied sharply. "Leave me alone…"

"That's not a clever thing to say to someone who's mending a hole in your body, you know." The Witch chuckled and poked the wound - Emily whimpered pitifully and curled up more on herself. 

“As if you cared.” She replied, bitter. It only enlarged the Witch’s smile.

“I do, actually. I can’t take you back home missing some parts, can I? Amélie would kill me.”

“So you really are Angela.”

“Took you long enough.”

They stood in silence after that, Angela’s magic working wonders to bring tissue back to the wound and ease the pain. Eventually Emily let herself relax more, uncurling and feeling her whole mind slipping away to nothingness. It wasn’t good or bad, at this point; just numb.

She was handled like a thing, a tool at the Witch’s disposal. She was changed again and again, was forced into a pointless fight and got really hurt in it. The only reason she was being healed was because it suited the Witch’s interests, whatever they were.

She just wanted to go home and hide.

“You’re so quiet. I thought you’d be happy to be a woman again - half a woman, anyway.” The Witch’s voice called her back to reality.

She didn’t answer. The Witch wasn’t bothered.

“It’s quite rude of you, to be honest - I’m even using my own energy to fuel the spell! Of course, I would’ve turned you into a proper woman if Moira hadn’t put more locks on you than a bank safe. I really wanted to see the faces of those pesky councilmen. How did you stand them?”

“I didn’t.”

“I can see why.”

More silence. The wound was no more than a spot of burnt-looking skin right now.

“Why didn’t you tell them where you actually found me?” Emily's voice was distant, and she still stared at a random point in the horizon. The Witch frowned at her, and her expression softened enough for her to look like the Angela Emily was used to seeing around.

“It would’ve been a bother.”

Emily couldn’t make anything out of this answer, but the fact remained that Angela now knew that the robin she often saw on the back garden was her, and she could do whatever she wanted with this information - and with Emily, by an extent. She was in her claws...

There was a flash of light behind them, followed by the shockwave of a powerful energy coalescing into a being.

“ _ Witch of the Wilds!” _

Angela was yanked from Emily’s side by a giant golden hand and raised up in the sky, definitely higher than it would be safe to fall from. Emily turned and sat down in a jolt, startled at first - but then she realized she knew that glowing, golden, featureless person the height of a three-storey building. The energy was unmistakable. 

Terpsichore was squeezing the Witch in her hand, and getting more recognizable by the minute despite the glowing aura setting her pretty much aflame. Her expression was livid, and when she spoke, it was with an authority and reverb Emily had never heard.  _ “What is the meaning of this?!" _

“I'm-- I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific, my lady" Angela gasped, trying to get some support in her grasp.

"Explain." She pointed down towards Emily and she couldn't feel the dense wave of power washing down on her even by the small gesture. It made her want to move - and so she got up and shifted the weight on her feet, uncomfortable.

"I found her, I brought her in to give us information about Moira's lab, a dragon attacked and I transformed her to save us." Angla spit the words out like they were the most common thing in the universe. Maybe they were, on hers. "She getting hurt was no part of the--"

"With what authority you go over and mess further with a muse already serving her sentence? With whose approval you twist her to your whims?!"

"It was an emergency!"

"Teleporting is an emergency action. The despair and hurt I felt came from something entirely different."

"What would you have me do, then? You have to fight back if you want to keep this place. Your gargoyles are garbage. You need  _ something  _ able to protect this place, since  _ you can't do it! _ "

Terpsichore squinted at her, a dangerous look in her face. Angela's limbs started flailing around as violently as they could in the grapple, her fingers moved independently, her head spun. It was a completely weird and spooky sight.

"It's your job to protect it, it's what we agreed upon. Your handling of this is despicable and you  _ will _ compensate Emily for what you did."

She stopped squinting and whatever was making Angela move uncontrollably dissipated, making her sigh in relief and, despite everything, cackle. "She really is your favorite."

Terpsichore didn’t answer, just let Angela go. She fell for a moment but in an instant the broom came to her rescue, letting her hover around until she was safely on the ground again, right in time to see the higher muse shrink to the size of a human woman, still glowing..

“Emily? I’m sorry, child.” Terpsichore put a hand on Emily’s shoulder. “I wasn’t paying attention, it took me too long to notice something was happening.” The fact she cared and came to her rescue was way more than an apology would ever do for her, but she found herself at a loss of words to tell this. She looked down to her feet, instead. “What do you want as compensation?”

She raised her eyes and looked from Angela to Terpsichore, a bit lost. She had to decide it like this? “I--”

“Oh, we know what she wants, my lady.” Angela had her smug smile back. “And I’d gladly provide it to her, but I’m afraid it’ll take a lot of effort to break the seals Moira placed.”

“You are trying to say…?” Terpsichore’s tone was steely.

“I’ll turn her into a woman - a human woman - if she works for us as a guardian until we can enter that damn lab and dispel whatever monstrosity Moira set in place. It’s only fair.”

By the way Terpsichore’s eyes got red in record time, she didn’t think it was very fair, no. Before she said anything, though, Emily spoke.   
  
“That might take years”

“Years?” Angela raised an eyebrow. “Oh no dear, we’re better than that. Especially with you on monster duty, I will be able to focus on that door and we’ll be in the lab sooner than you realize.”

“Why not conjure a monster like Moira is doing, then? Why do you want me?”

Angela and Terpsichore exchanged a cautious look. 

“You didn’t see the other monsters she sent, did you?” Angela clicked her tongue.

Emily crisped her lips. “No, you just kidnapped me today!” 

“Let’s just say doing that demands an insane amount of energy and it’s not what she’s doing.”

Without warning, the ground shook enough for loose pebbles and debris to fall. It came from somewhere to their left.

Terpsichore turned to Angela. “Take Emily back to where you found her. She will give you an answer later.”

“As a bird, of course.” Angela giggled and twirled her hand once. With a gasp, Emily was turned back into a robin and flew to her.

“And be sure to come back afterwards, we have  _ much _ to discuss.”

If Angela was bothered by the words in any way, she didn’t show - rather, she nodded, smiled and teleported away.

Terpsichore sighed and looked back towards the source of the earthquake. She could see a weird form raising in the distance, and the gargoyle guards flying that way.

The Witch was right, she couldn’t do anything to help. Her efforts to talk to the olympians about it had been in vain, she had no luck finding the minor gods that could help with the fight, and now this…

She hoped Emily could get out of this madness soon enough. She couldn’t.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Witch turned Emily into a giant version of a Stymphalian bird - mythical birds that appear on the Sixth labour of Heracles. They are voracious, man-eating creatures with beaks made of bronze that could tear armor open effortlessly and with metallic sharp feathers they could launch at people. How cool is that?!


	9. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I'm growing tired of fighting  
>  I've been drained and I can't hide it  
> But I have strength for you, you're all that's real anymore_

“There’s one more thing, Emily.” Angela said, taking a sip of the cup of tea she just materialized. “It wouldn’t be wise to tell sweet little Lena and Amélie what we’ve been and will surely will be up to the next days. Can’t have them worried!” She giggled.

Emily was perched on top of the couch back on King’s Row, staring at her, hoping that at least the intensity of the glare carried over the vague idea she wanted to peck one of Angela’s eyes out. Why should she stay quiet when she was being dragged into a thing that wasn’t even her business anymore? Why protect the fact Angela really was the Witch? She was sure Amélie would want to know, as heartbreaking as it would be. Besides, Emily learned her lesson about keeping secrets two years before.

“And, of course, if you tell them I won’t be inclined to make that deal and turn you back into a woman anymore. I guess your higher muse would even be relieved if I found some other poor soul to turn into a monster and guardian, you know? She loves you so much.”

That wasn’t a bad idea, actually. Emily trusted her girlfriends to find something, anything to help her. In turn, she didn’t trust Angela one bit anymore, even though witch pacts, much like fae pacts, had to be followed through as agreed or dire consequences followed. Words could be twisted, and often were in these cases. No, she’d rather take her chances with the honest effort of the ones she loved.

Angela picked up her phone, absentminded, thinking there were probably a hundred messages from the clinic waiting for her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t play witch the whole time when she was a busy doctor… At least people appreciated her efforts in this day and age, if it was any consolation. It certainly beat being burned to death.

Huh? What were those messages by Lena? Did she notice Emily was gone…?

Wait, no.

_ Fuck. _

“Amélie had some sort of magical accident.”

It was like every electronic device on the house capable of sound came to life and bursted into cacophony. Angela put her hands over her ears but even then she couldn’t drown the sound, but Emily quickly controlled her outburst and turned it all off. 

“It hurt!” Angela protested. “She seems to be okay now!”

Emily chirped impatiently, paced around on the couch and stared at Angela.

“What?”

It was a bit of a challenge to turn the radio on with her focus somewhere else, so it was a loud jumble of stations at first.

_ I know what you want _

_ I'm gonna take you to a midnight show tonight _

_ If you can keep a secret _

_ I got a blanket in the back seat on my mind _

“You want me to take you to her?

Emily nodded.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course not, we can’t be seen together.”

The stereo turned on again, even louder.

_ Fuck you, _

_ Fuck you very very much _

Angela snickered. “How delightfully direct of you. She’s at the precinct Ana’s daughter works at with Lena. Good luck flying there.”

Emily darted out the back garden as soon as she finished her sentence. The stereo, however, kept blasting a collection of sweetly-sang  _ fuckyou _ s at Angela.

\--

Sojourn sighed and put the papers down after a tense moment that felt like ages for Lena and Amélie.

“So” she started “it appears nothing is really what it seems with you three, huh.” She clearly noticed Emily wasn’t there, but she didn’t ask.

"What did they find?” Lena asked eagerly, and the only thing holding her on the chair was Amélie’s hand holding tight on hers.

They’ve been there for hours already, enough for the sun to start setting outside. First there were a load of exams and probing for magic on Amélie, an even bigger amount of questions, endless waiting and they were finally in Sojourn’s office. She didn’t look happy - but then again, that was her default expression anyway.

“An intriguing lack of magic traces. After a strong episode such as your paralysis, that’s as surprising as it’s telling.” Sojourn crisped her lips, looking from one to the other. 

“And what does it tell?” Amélie had a perfectly calm facade, but part of why she was holding on Lena so tight was that she was shaking slightly.

“You talk in the report about the blank spot in your memory regarding how you lost your shadow, miss Guillard. I’m pretty confident something happened in this period of time.” She looked very tired when she lowered her voice. “Whatever is happening to you, it’s happening in such a flawless, undetectable way that I can’t help but think it was allowed in the first place.”

Amélie scoffed. “You think I  _ let _ someone do this to myself?!”

“I think you might’ve been tricked to, yes. Now, is there anything  _ extra official _ you want to tell me?”

Lena and Amélie looked at each other before answering, clearly debating if they should do it.

“Well… Remember I told you how I got lost in time and the girls went searching for me?” Lena started.

“This is how we found where she was. If I recall…” Amélie winced “Arakhne could see all of reality, Emily told us. She wove it, so we wanted to ask her, but something was wrong and I got pulled in. Next thing I remember, I was laying on my back and my shadow was gone.”

Sojourn had a weird expression going on, a mix of exasperation and fatigue. “And you knew where Oxton was.” As Amélie nodded, she let out an unintended groan. “It’s very clear to me: you wanted something, you came back without your shadow; there was an exchange.”

“Yes, we figured that out.” Amélie replied, matter-of-factly. 

“We did?” Lena frowned.

“Me and Ana, yes, but it’s been two years and nothing happened until now.”

“Something changed, then.” Sojourn added.

_ THUMP. _

Something hit the window from Sojourn’s office to the rest of the precinct. Something small and featherly, flapping its wings and dodging the officer that just tried to catch it with a bin.

“Emily?” Lena’s eyes went wide. “Emily!”

She jumped from the chair and ran to the door and outside; a moment later Emily entered the room and landed on top of the bookshelf behind Sojourn, chirping quite offendedly. 

“Captain Sojourn--!” The voice of a soldier came from the door.

“I told you, man, she’s our familiar!” Lena’s voice came right after.

“It’s okay Robins, it really is.” Sojourn shouted at them, massaging her temple. “Oxton, close the door and get your ass back here now.”

“Aye cap!” She shouted back, and a moment later she was blinking back inside.“Em, how did you find us?!”

“ _ Don’t _ start with the music!” Sojourn was quick to say. In response, everyone went quiet.

Very quiet.

“So--”

_ Why you gotta be like that? _

_ You're never gonna bring him back _

Of course Emily would wait for her to start talking to blast a song in Amélie’s phone. Sojourn groaned and hid her face in her hands for a moment - Lena laughed, and Amélie had some trouble keeping from chuckling.

The song was quick to fade, though, and Emily fluttered to the table, looking at the captain as innocently as she could.

“I swear to god, you’re as bad as Amari’s mother.” Sojourn grunted.

She just sat and stared at her, adorably.

“So,  _ as I was saying _ ” Sojourn waited - when music didn’t come, she continued talking “Something--”

_ Something in the sky _

_ Looking down on you _

_ Something in the sky _

_ Aligning _

“You walked right into that!” Lena burst into laughter.

“Emily,  _ ma coeur,  _ let her speak.” Amélie had an amused smile on her face. She offered a hand and Emily flew to it, so they could have the very Disney princess moment of kissing the bird.

Sojourn had a very,  _ very _ tired expression. 

“Are you finished, can I speak now?” Emily nodded. “Finally. So, something must’ve changed now, for these things to happen. Maybe a condition was fulfilled, or a plan completed. Has anything out of the ordinary happened?”

“Love, our life is a big ball of stuff out of the ordinary.” Lena shugged. 

She had a point.

“Something  _ unusually _ out of the ordinary, then? Something groundshaking?”

“Uh… no?” Lena tried. “I mean, the rips in time have been increasing, like I told you before, but... “

She went very quiet, deep in thought. What could’ve happened in those months? Or rather, in the time between the night Lena woke up with Amélie sitting in bed, doing weird stuff? Because that was when this started, right?

“If you can’t think of anything, then I suggest we go talk with this Arahkne.”

Amélie frowned. “What if she erases our memories of this, as well?”

“You have to believe we’re more prepared than you to deal with this, miss Guillard - no offense.”

She didn’t know if she should believe that, actually. Ana was really powerful, Fareeha was helping her, Lúcio had experience with dealing with spirits, and yet it was so easy for Arahkne to shrug off all of their wards and spells to snatch her before…

Emily hopped from her hand to her shoulder, rubbing her head on her neck. She felt the tension building and wanted to help - it made Amélie stop and let go of the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

“What can we do?” Amélie sighed, more to herself and Emily. She didn’t know how to go on from there. Frankly, her mind wasn’t cooperating as much anymore, she was so tired with all that happened....

“We could call Ana.” Lena, still oblivious turned to her and saw how she looked. “But we could also go home, right? It’s been a long day.”

Sojourn nodded. “I’ll have to study the case further, as well. Go home, we’ll call if we need anything.”

Finally, freedom.

\--

The room was silent, cast in the dark of the early night. There on the bed, resting in the arms of her lover, Amélie felt safe. Lena’s heart beat peacefully against her chest, its rhythm a lullaby to the tired dancer. Emily laid by her forehead, raising and lowering with Lena’s each breath, on the perfect place to snuggle with both of them at the moment. A

“I’m sorry.” Amélie whispered. “I didn’t mean to give you all that trouble, Lena…”

“That’s no trouble.” She was quick to answer, tilting her head a bit to look at her. “It just happened. We’re gonna solve it, and everything is going to be okay.”

Amélie didn’t answer.

“I mean it!” Lena squeezed her in the embrace a bit. “C’mon, you took me out of the timestream, remember? It can’t be as hard as that - and now we’re together!”

Emily raised her head and looked at Lena. Sure, they were together, but she was still a bird. There wasn’t a lot she could do, especially with the Witch coming after her.

“And we’re also going to help Emily be a woman again, I believe in it.”

Lena, always the optimist. It made Amélie smile.“...I need a vacation.” 

“God, yes.” She snickered.”With a lot of sun and a cabin in a private beach.”

“Private, you say?”Amélie chuckled. “And I’m the snob.”

“Well, there’s no fun in having that much money if you don’t use it, love!”

“You only want it private so we can get frisky on the sand, I know you.”

“Me? Of course not!” Lena faked offense, but the laughter was right there, attempting to escape.

“No?” Amélie’s tone was low, velvety. She planted a kiss on her chest and hummed, very conscious Lena had just held her breath. “You’re going to tell me you’re not thinking of running your fingers all over me, not a cloth in sight, claiming someone had to be reasonable and apply some sunscreen to my pale, soft skin?”

Emily let out a loud chirp that made them both jump. She sounded offended, looking from one to the other… And that was when Lena started laughing for real.

“Sorry love, I forget.” She winked.

Emily wanted to peck her nose. It was  _ so _ unfair to start this kind of flirting with her right there; she not only couldn’t flirt back but she also felt them getting all excited....  _ And she was a fucking-- a damn, not-fucking bird. Ugh. _

“We’re going to make it up for you when you’re back.” Amélie turned to face her, and she poked her nose.

_ You better,  _ she thought.

“I love you.” Amélie whispered. “You both.”

They were held in silence, caught by the sudden confession. It was amazing how even after two years, Lena’s heart just melted every time… And Emily? Oh, she wanted so much to cover her in kisses and tell her the same after each one of them, the corniest, the better!

Lena had a silly grin when she finally answered. “We love you too, despite you being French.”

That made Amélie scoff, the grimace on her face enough for Lena to giggle. It was dark, soft, comfortable. They surely could leave the rest for the next day, for once...

\--

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs this chapter:
> 
> Midnight Show - The Killers  
> Fuck You - Lilly Allen  
> Bottomfeeder - Amanda Palmer  
> Something In The Sky - Mothlite
> 
> Big thanks for Rhitta for taking a look at the chapter and chatting about stuff! love your tinfoil hat theories =DD


	10. Speed the Collapse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The wind presents a change of course, a second reckoning of sorts  
>  We were wasted waiting for a come down of revolving doors  
> Fate don't fail me now ___

They had two major leads to follow: Going after the wolf Apollo wanted, or going after Arahkne for answers about Amélie’s affliction. One was clearly more urgent than the other, and they started tracing a plan with Sojourn as soon as possible, enlisting Ana’s help.

She called them the day after the whole ordeal with Amélie, claiming the alarms she’d placed on Amélie for threats had all gone off, but she couldn’t see it before because she was with Fareeha on the “werewolf mansion” and the receiving ends of the alarms were all at home. Lena quickly filled her in what happened, their trip to the hospital and then to the magical police, all with her characteristic onomatopoeias and anecdotes. Ana, in turn, told her how Fareeha wasn’t responding well to being in a place to learn to control her newly-acquired condition, and how she was pushing everyone away. Lena offered to go visit her anytime - but after they solved this particular issue, of course. Ana agreed to head back to London and help, even though she didn’t really like the magic police’s involvement. Something about them not having a clue of the subtleties half the time, she said. Lena thought that was very interesting, coming from the one-eyed grandma who sniped wrongdoers with a paintball rifle on the street.

It took them a good two weeks to find a suitable communication spell and a mix of powerful shielding spells to ensure they’d talk and not be tricked by the mother of spiders like when she took Amélie. Sojourn wanted to weave a truth spell into their communication, but sadly they didn’t find a good way to do it without Arakhne being aware of it. The last thing they needed was to enrage her and not get any answers.

It was a late Saturday when they finished preparations in one of the thick rooms with magic-proof walls in the magic police HQ. Lena, Amélie and Emily were watching from an annex room just like the ones in interrogation rooms, watching Ana and Sojourn take a breath before starting communication and four other officers get ready on the corners of the room. Amélie was stiff in her seat, eyes glued to the window. Lena put her head on her shoulder and pulled her closer by the waist, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable thing on those metal chairs.

“It’s going to work, love. There’s a lot of people this time.” She whispered.

“What if it’s not it? If it’s not Arakhne?”

“Then at least we’ll know, right?”

Emily chirped in agreement. She was sitting on the small wall space before the glass, watching.

Inside the other room, they all began casting their spells on Sojourn’s command. Flashes of white, golden and blue energy filled the air for a moment, shining glyphs and geometric shapes floated as they were drawn in the air and affixed themselves on a spherical away around Sojourn before disappearing. She nodded slightly to Ana, and the protector started a circling motion with her arm, a rope of gold energy settling on the floor in a wide circle that also encompassed Sojourn. She drew some sigils herself, and activated a series of drawings on the floor made with a weird, thick violet ink. A bright purple light rose from the lines like a miniature aurora and dissipated at chest height, and Sojourn’s vision and the inside of her mouth were taken by the same glow.

Everything was very silent for a couple of minutes, the tension hanging like a taut string ready to snap over them. 

Then Amélie gasped, getting up in a hurry. Lena got up after her, looking around with alarm.

“What’s the matter?” She asked.

“The web!” Amélie’s voice wavered. “Can you not see it?”

Lena was about to answer when they all heard the chittering. It was loud and it crept into one’s ears like a thousand little spiders going up. It made Amélie jump and get as far back as she could while still looking: There was nothing but the web, a massive amount of spider silk coming out of the magic circle, slowly filling the room with a sickly red miasma. No spiders appeared, but it didn’t make the sensation the noise brought go away.

“No, I can’t!” Lena’s eyes went wide. “Are they here?!”

“No, in the other room-- Emily, get out of that window!” Emily did as she was told, but she was also visibly lost. Amélie looked for the phone on the side table and picked it up, talking to the other room. “There’s spider webs all over the room now, it has something red coming out of it!”

The agents there were all caught by surprise by this information, but not Sojourn. Ana shook her head in distaste.

A low, soft laughter echoed through the room.

“ _Oh, Ana Amari, disappointed in your special sight?”_

Amélie held her breath. That was definitely’s Arakhne’s voice.

Lena hugged her by the waist, and Emily landed on her shoulder.

“Are you Arakhne?” Sojourn asked, unfazed. The energy in her eyes and mouth ensured she could see and talk to the other plane, differently from her colleagues. Unfortunately, all she saw was the darkness and the spider webs, with spiders appearing and disappearing on the peripherals of her vision. It was a good thing they didn’t make her any more uneasy than she already was.

“ _Am I? It would be a shame if all your preparation landed you a different spider queen, mm?”_ She chuckled.

“Regardless, I’m Commander Sojourn and I’m here on behalf of the London magic police to ask you some questions about the missing shadow of Amélie Guillard.” She was the mask of professionalism, stern but not rude. It was a lot like Fareeha.

“ _Her shadow is not missing, dear commander, it’s in my care. She gave it to me in an honest deal.”_

So it was true.

“A deal?” Sojourn repeated.

“ _Yes. She wanted my sight for some moments, and I asked for her shadow in return_.”

“And why doesn’t she have any recollection of this deal? I’m also told you all but dragged her to the magic circle and into your realm. What was your interest in her?”

 _“She’s pleasant to look at.”_ Arakhne sounded amused by the questions. _“And they tried to make me talk to a frog boy before. A frog. The disrespect…”_

Yeah, Sojourn knew that part. Ana said Arakhne cocooned Lúcio upside-down in her web, and now she talked about it like it wasn’t that big of a deal. It made a person wonder how many times people were foolish around to seek her out and she just devoured them instead.

“ _As to why she doesn’t remember, I don’t know. Maybe she really doesn’t like spiders?”_ Again that laugh echoing around. Was it only her or a million other spiders in unison?

“Let me ask a different question, then. Has anything happened to Amélie’s shadow or have you manipulated it in any way recently? We’ve had some curious episodes with its previous owner, and we’re trying to pinpoint a source.”

 _“And then you came to me, I see.”_ She made a pause, and Sojourn saw bright red eyes towering over her in the darkness, tilting to the side as if in thought. “ _Her shadow is as beautiful as it’s meant to be, commander Sojourn. A perfect image of her.”_

Sojourn raised an eyebrow. Those eyes were so big, threatening just by standing there. If she hadn’t seen as much as she had, she’d maybe had shut the communications right when they appeared and jeopardized the interrogation, but she knew better than that. She wasn’t really there in Arakhne’s realm. She could do nothing against her.

“That’s not what I asked.” She said. “Has anything happened to her shadow?”

A bright spotlight was cast in front of Sojourn, illuminating a weird bulbous spot that was in fact an agglomeration of spiders that quickly scurried away from the light. Then the shadow of a woman with long straight hair appeared on the light, even though her owner wasn’t at all visible.

“ _There it is, dear commander, safe and sound. Inspect it all you like.”_

If there was a way to cast spells and know for sure, Sojourn would’ve done it. A visual inspection was all she managed: there were no holes, no weird shapes protruding from anywhere. It looked alright, consistent. She crouched and poked the arm of the shadow with a finger really hard, then got up with an unreadable expression.

“I believe that’s all I need.” She concluded.

All the light faded.

“Very well. Step into my parlor any time, dear…”

Sojourn made a motion with her hand. Ana and the other officers dispelled the magic in the room, watching the glowing patterns dissolve in the air. Amélie saw the web fade and then the miasma, and only then she could breathe properly again.

\--

“She’s lying. Something definitely happened.”

There they were at Sojourn’s office again, and she looked really tired, as always.

Amélie leaned forward on her chair. “How can you tell?”

“You have your hair tied back today. The shadow she showed me had its hair down - but it should still reflect your current appearance if it was doing alright.”

She got very pale. Lena cursed under her breath.

“Now we have to discover why you lost your memory and if there’s a possibility Arakhne took your shadow away by force, having providing you with her sight as a cover for other intentions..”

Lena perked up, her eyes regaining their usual sparkle. “I can see to that!”

\--

“No.” A seven-year old Khronos replied, deadpan. It would’ve been very weird to see such sobriety from a child, but he still had his impossibly old stare locked on Lena.

“But Khronos--!” 

“Have you tended to your duties the last few days, kid? Because I sense - and I know you do too - an increase in instability throughout and around the city. Have you stopped to consider I didn’t pull you in and sent you in errands as a courtesy, as I know it would be impossible to get work sufficiently done with your head on your girlfriend?”

She stopped abruptly, looking cross and surprised at the same time. He kept walking towards nothing, bits and pieces of vastly different flooring coming out of the timestream to form a path before him.

“Hey, that’s not-- I’m sorry, okay?” She sprinted up to him again, and he didn’t even bat an eye in her direction. “If I go fix these rifts in time will you let me take a look? Please, it’s so important!”

“Just because you have a tiny spark of me inside you doesn’t mean you have the right to go snooping around other people’s life. Not even the gods delve in memories like that.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re just wary of you.” She mumbled under her breath.

“That, too.” He looked over his shoulder with a broad, unsettling smile, and it looked like he’d aged about two years from that brief walk.

Lena tried very much to not assume anything from that expression and just kept the conversation going. “Can’t you like, just tell me? You see everything from here!”

He rolled his eyes. “The nearest rift is on a side street in South Bank…”

\--

Ana and Amélie were sitting in the living room, waiting for Lena to come back. Emily was playing with Baguette and Poulain, flying around with wire on her beak tied to a feather teaser dangling below. The cats ran like crazy after her, trying to bat at the feathers, but right as Poulain pounced to catch it Emily flew up and she found nothing, skidding on the floor and hitting face-first the couch. It was delightful to watch.

Ana had a smirk, watching the cat shake herself and go after Emily again. Both of the kittens bat at the toy a lot (in Baguette’s case, pounced and tried to grab it with her mouth) but not once it was directed at the actual bird in the room. They really liked Emily. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it all happened, dear. Maybe I could’ve done something.”

Amélie spun her glass of wine in controlled motion and took a sip, considering what to say. “I appreciate the concern, but I don’t think you could. Sojourn told you about the results of their exams, no?”

She scoffed. “She did. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know, though, and today we also didn’t discover anything new except Arakhne is definitely hiding something. Maybe if I was here when it happened… Ah, no matter. Let’s consider our options right now.”

“Go on.”

Right as Amélie finished, though, they heard the familiar distorted crack of Lena reappearing on the land of the living, falling softly on the couch. Poulain, seeing that, ran towards her and started rubbing against her legs.

“How did it go?” Ana looked at Lena, mildly curious.

“No deal. He keeps nagging at me to do my job.” She rolled her eyes and got to her feet. “So I guess I’m gonna do it asap and try to convince him again. Does anyone want to come?”

A chirp from overhead and when Lena looked, Emily dropped the feather toy right on her nose. Lena batted it away by instinct, and as soon as it hit the floor Poulain jumped at it and started munching. “Em!” Emily fluttered down to her shoulder as if she was the most innocent bird in the world, and Lena snickered. “Riiight, let’s go. Bye!”

“Be careful--” Ana started, but soon enough there was only a trail of fading light and the front door closing. “As if she wasn’t electric enough...”

“You get used to it, especially if she’s bringing breakfast.” Amélie chuckled, her mind going back a bit. “So, you were saying…?”

“Yes, of course, our options. One - Lena actually finds out what’s going on by talking to Khronos, but I honestly don’t think this will happen. Two - We abide by the magic police’s rules and let Sojourn take lead of solving this. Three - We keep going after the answers ourselves.”

“Mm.“ Amélie took another sip of her wine. “With all due respect, we’ve been monitoring this for two years. Maybe Sojourn will be luckier than you were.”

Ana seemed unfazed. “Nothing _happened_ these years. Now that it did, the real work can begin.”

“And what, pray tell, is the ‘real work’ going to look like?”

She gave her an impish smile. “Things that would make Sojourn mad, probably.”

\--

They found them this time, despite every security measure they put in place. 

_Something must’ve slipped through when we took the plane_ , Sombra thought as she ran, perfectly calm. It was the only part of the trip where they had to rely on third parties.

Bolts of energy hit the wall as she made a sharp turn to the left, disappearing on a back alley. Unfortunately, a couple of men in impeccable uniforms were already coming for her from the other end of the place, hands trained at her like guns, magic circles hovering before them. _Shit._ She looked around and found only high walls. The pursuers from behind caught up, and now she was surrounded.  
  
“Gentlemen.” She tilted her head, a small device safe in her hand, and she threw it over one of the walls.

She flashed purple, and in the blink of an eye she appeared on the nearby roof, retrieving the gadget and running.

It didn’t take long for the men to get up and start shooting energy at her , and for her to reply with her own SMG. Unfortunately they had energy barriers that didn’t seem to crack against the bullets, so she resorted to plan B: losing them in the sea of buildings, and god, she was good at using them to her advantage. Every time they had a clear view she’d slide and duck and jump behind concrete, hit a gas pipe, jump down to a lower rooftop. Sombra was the embodiment of elusive.

They lost sight of her at a shady neighborhood, Los Muertos territory. It was full of crumbling houses covered in graffiti, and with rooftops too fragile to navigate. The men in uniforms were forced to get down to the narrow streets again. They definitely weren’t in their element there, so when they caught sight of Sombra making a turn ahead, they didn’t realize it was a very deliberate movement.

They chased her down to a square-shaped area surrounded by the back of tall buildings, a dead-end. Sombra obviously noticed how cornered she was, and couldn’t mask the tension - she wouldn’t be able to throw her device and do her little trick again with buildings that high around them.

The moment they stepped closer, though, they were hit by four different light beams that instantly knocked them out in a neat little pile.

Sombra sighed, looking at the small round turrets attached to the walls around the entrance, concealed from outsiders’ eyes. It wasn’t the first time they saved her ass, even if this one was a coordinated trap.

“You’re late.”

Her eyes darted to the side, where someone waited for her under the cover of darkness. A motion and an octahedron made of bright white light illuminated the place: a beautiful woman with clear indian features and a stern look stared at Sombra, her fingers spinning the polyhedron in the air.

Sombra immediately grinned, her eyes softening with the familiar face. “ _Ay cariño,_ I thought you wouldn’t stick around and wait for me…”

“Should my turrets have failed, I wanted to be here to ensure you wouldn’t have been shot down, of course.”

“A little faith in my talents wouldn’t hurt, you know.” She put a hand on her chest, faking offense.

The woman raised an eyebrow, getting up from a stool that disappeared in sparkles of white and blue as soon as she wasn’t touching it. “That’s not the case. I merely know my kind, Sombra.”

Sombra laughed. “I know, it was a joke.” She then made a motion to pick the woman’s hand, as if waiting for a refusal. When none came, she picked it up and interlaced their fingers. “Glad to see you unhar--”

A weird displacing sound startled them both, followed by the turrets activating, a surprised yelp and something crashing hard on the neat pile of uniformed men, rolling and landing on the floor. Sombra and her companion both turned, ready to attack, but as soon as they saw who it was, Sombra all but jumped to help the person.

“¡ _Madre de dios, Lena!_ ¡ _¿Que carajos estas haciendo acá?!”_

\--

An insistent electronic hum brought Lena back to conscience. She blinked a couple of times, trying to organize her thoughts. That wasn’t the ceiling of her bedroom, she didn’t even remember going back, for the matter. What was--

_Oh crap!_

Lena all but jumped from bed, and of course her sight went dark and her pressure fell, making her wobble back to sitting as a particularly fainty earthworm.

“It seems your friend has woken up, Sombra.”

Lena had her eyes closed, waiting for the humming in her ears to stop, but she knew that voice was unknown. However, the chirp and the small weight on her shoulder, followed by feathers against her neck, they weren’t. Emily was there with her, so everything was probably okay.

“Ugh.” She opened her eyes slowly, thanking the light was dim. “What happened?”

“You were caught in a trap meant for other people.” 

Her eyes fell upon a very distinctive woman with dark skin, long black hair and a piercing gaze. She examined Lena for no more than two seconds before she went back to disassembling a metallic device in the most well-organized desk Lena had ever seen: it had all sorts of delicate components, wires, tools and plates, but everything fit like a well-played tetris game.

“Yeah, that’s me alright.” Lena took a lock of hair away from her eyes. “Who are you?”

“I’m Symmetra.” She didn’t look back at her. “You’re Lena, and the bird lady is your girlfriend, it seems. What an exquisite condition, hers.”

“And I’m Sombra!” Sombra entered the room with a lot of junk food and soda cans, which made Symmetra crisp her lips in distaste. “Long time no see, _Colibri!_ ”

“Sombra! What the-- I thought you were in Mexico?!”

“Well I was. “ She sat down on the other side of the bed and dropped the snacks by her, opening a bag of chips. “Then I went to a lot of places and now I’m here. It’s way more interesting to know why you were there in that particular alley just in time to be zapped by Symm’s turrets.” She blew a kiss in Symmetra’s direction, even though she was focused on her disassembling task.

“Turrets?” Lena patted her body for marks - or rather, holes - and when she found none, she cleared her throat and continued. “I was looking for something. There was a strange fluctuation coming from that alley and I was going to check it.”

“A fluctuation, you say?” Symmetra turned towards her, showing clear, but reserved interest. “What kind of fluctuation?”

“Time, but something else too. It felt like… Searing, I don’t know.”

“Definitely Vishkar.” Symmetra said under her breath, her eyes getting sharp.

“What?”

“Wait wait wait.” Sombra waved around with her mouth full of chips. She made sure to swallow before talking further, though. “Time? Your brand of reality-fucking, game-breaking time?”

“Kinda? It wasn’t a breach, but it left a trail of… How can I explain this? Like the feeling you have when everything halts; a weird stillness.”

Symmetra reached for a small locked chest on the corner of the desk. She wriggled her fingers like she was manning a loon over her other hand and threads of light appeared, intersecting with each other, forming geometric patterns until a key with sharp design was created. It landed softly on her hand, and as soon as she used it on the chest and it opened with a click, Lena turned in that direction.

“ _That’s it.”_ She was emphatic. A second later she was blinking to Symmetra’s side, leaving Emily to take flight all of a sudden, chirping in protest. “What’s it?”

Symmetra was shaken by the sudden appearance, but recomposed herself quickly and took out something that looked like a very elegant miniature birdcage, but with a swirling light inside. “The focal point to Vishkar spellcasters. Every employee is given one of these in order to have a steady source of energy for their spells, given the fact that the cage is enchanted to constantly absorb the energy in the environment around it.

Lena was unconsciously leaning towards the object. She straightened herself quickly as she heard that. “Is that… Safe?”

Symmetra didn’t seem too bothered. “It does so in an almost imperceptible way, and it has an energy cap - or it should, but that’s not what I’m getting from this one. It keeps absorbing and releasing energy in a loop, so I locked it away for further study.”

Lena didn’t know much about enchanted spellcasting devices or safety measures for them, but she knew that 90% of the time something had a weird chronal aura and the word loop was used, it was her job to fix it.

“Whatever happened to it, it’s causing time to be weird. I gotta take a look. “ She reached for it, but Symmetra took it out of her range and gave her a look. “Please?”

“Just do it, Symm.” Sombra waved dismissively from the bed, half laying down. “Whatever it is, I’m sure Lena’s already in trouble, so...”

“You talk of Vishkar like they’re no threat, like--” Symmetra scoffed. “Sombra, we’re not involving anyone else in this!”

Sombra shrugged and Symmetra stared daggers at her. Lena didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that, but she used the opportunity to be sneaky and scoop the magic cage from her hands.

The moment she lifted it up a couple of things happened: the metal burnt inside her fingers right into her veins, and she was pulled into a whole different scene.

She was in a lab, the kind of lab crammed with heavy machinery with outdated analogic displays, hundreds of buttons and the floor covered in cables. For all purposes, she could’ve fallen into a military sci-fi movie set in the 50s (or 40s? Maybe 30s? She had no idea) and it would look just like that.

The place was deserted. She started walking around, not bothering with her feet once she learnt she was incorporeal and she was, in fact, in a memory. Whose memory? Was it the cause of the instability? What was it even doing there in a weird mage device?

Her thoughts came to a halt as a heavy metal door opened somewhere to her right. It creaked as hell.

 _“Doctor, are you here already…?”_ A pause. “ _The lights are on, maybe he fell asleep again…_ ”

Something collided with metal casing near her, and by the curse that followed, it was definitely a man. Maybe this was the doctor mentioned? She started moving that direction, turning a corner on a set of what looked like very primitive form paper printers. The memory rapidly got weird, though. Glitchy. The machines changed places or disappeared entirely, and no matter how much she walked, she never seemed to get anywhere.

 _“Doctor?”_ The man from before asked again.

_“I’m co-- I’m coming!”_

The sound of someone getting up hastily, dragging the chair. The form of a man emerging from nothing in front of her. 

The blink of an eye.

Symmetra staring at her from behind a complex and beautiful magical interface, likely a spell. She looked concerned but also fascinated, and let out a soft gasp when Lena reappeared there.

“Oh, you’re back.” She pulled back a bit.

“I told you!” Sombra shouted from the bed, voice muffled by chips. Emily immediately took flight from the top of her knee and pierced the floating spell to land on Lena’s head, chirping non-stop.

“It’s okay, love!” Lena reached up and pat her so she’d stop. “I just went for a memory-ride.”

“A what?” Symmetra perked up.

Lena scratched her nose. “I was in a memory. If I take it out of this thing it’ll go back to normal, probably.”

The calculations were almost visible in Symmetra’s head. Sombra, behind, sat down with a groan.

“That’s great and all, _Colibri,_ but--”

“Sombra, that’s it!” Symmetra beamed all of a sudden, getting up and going out of the room.”

“...An explanation would be nice!” Sombra shouted back, chuckling.

With the same haste she came, Symmetra came back with a big heavy box, the type Lena would see sometimes carrying gear in the army, but this one was way more high tech. She set it on the floor where everyone could see, and looked Lena dead in the eye.

“Here is all the odd Vishkar tech we’ve been acquiring this year. I want you to tell me if it’s all the same as the device you just tapped into.”

Lena raised an eyebrow, looking from Symmetra to the artifact still in her hands and the box. “Uh... sure?”

She clicked on a button on the side of the box and the lid slid to the side elegantly, revealing a hoard of stuff that looked very engineery, the kind of thing Brigitte would love to put her hands on. It also sent out a wave of chronal energy so strong Lena shifted and blinked all over the room unintentionally, until she could concentrate enough to keep herself whole and physical in the farthest corner. Emily was forced to take flight again, and this time she landed on the desk and just stared as the scene unfolded.

“God, ugh-- Yes, that’s bloody-- keep the lid on, will ya?!” She laughed nervously, then gasped and sighed in relief when Symmetra did as she asked. “That’s way too much time energy in one place, should be illegal!”

This time it was Sombra who laughed. “Illegal is Vishkar’s middle name almost as much as mine, _love._ ”

Lena joined her in laughter, but Symmetra had a grim expression on her face.

“That’s the cause of the power boost we couldn’t figure out, Sombra. It can only be it - Vishkar is somehow using this chronal energy.”

“Oh, that could be the cause of all the rifts I’ve been seeing around town!” Lena looked gobsmacked by the revelation.

Sombra frowned. “Rifts. How dangerous is time again, _chica?_ ”

“Well, it can dowright lock things out or speed the collapse, right? Just imagine an apocalypse of people frozen in the middle of their usual business, day and night and day and night in a span of minutes, flowers sprouting and immediately withering, or never withering at all... This kind of thing.”

Despite her casual tone, Sombra and Symmetra exchanged a worried look.

“Well, I guess we just learnt what Vishkar is doing in London.” Sombra said, somewhat grave for the first time.

\--

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _¡Madre de dios, Lena! ¡¿Que carajos estas haciendo acá?!_ : Mother of God, Lena, what the fuck are you doing here?!


	11. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The candles blew then disappeared  
>  The curtains flew then he appeared, saying don't be afraid_

“Why are we in a graveyard after dark, Ana?”

“We’re meeting an old friend.”

“What kind of friend hangs out in a graveyard this late?”

“The kind of bastard we need, Amélie.” 

Ana navigated the graveyard as easily as if she had walked that path for years already. Amélie, with the bad foot and a weak flashlight, wasn’t nearly as dextrous; she had to ask Ana to slow down at least three times before they reached their destination, and her pride was a bit wounded as a result.

They arrived in an older part of the place, where tombstones gave way to a row of mausoleums. It would be a lie to say they weren’t ominous and quite frightening under flashlight, despite Ana’s completely unbothered attitude - she was like this with everything, anyway. Amélie tried to focus on the way and on Ana’s back, and not on those cold stone and iron buildings. The last thing she needed was to get startled by a statue, trip and twist an ankle.

“We’re here.” Ana stopped before the - _of course_ \- oldest mausoleum of the batch, one that was one step short of a ruin. The statues were all broken, the stone was eroded and crumbling, there were plants growing on the unstable roof. The whole place looked like it would cave in if someone gave a wall a good shove, except for the heavy wooden door. Despite the rusted hinges, it looked sturdy enough to withstand a hit from a battering ram.

 _They really didn’t want anyone to enter this one_ , Amélie thought to herself.

_...Or leave it._

A shiver ran down her spine. What the _fuck_ did she have to think that for?!

The fact Ana headed for the door and knocked on it didn’t help ease her worry in the slightest. Sure, she could tell her to come back some other day when Lena was around, but she was proud, she wouldn’t let anyone know she was frightened. Was Ana’s friend a ghost? a zombie? A vampire?

Despite her fertile imagination, the only thing that happened in the next two minutes was an owl screeching somewhere. 

Ana rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Should we go back?” Amélie tried.

She replied by knocking on the door again, harder. “I know you’re there, I can see the smoke!”

“ _Go awaaaaay!”_ The voice sounded as raspy as dragging nails on a blackboard, and made the hairs on the back of Amélie’s neck stand with the same efficiency. 

“I have a job for you. You still like going after big bad people and sucking them dry, don’t you?”

There was a small pause, then a head emerged right through the door, inches from Ana’s face. It wore a black hood and a mask styled as a skeletal face, but that looked like it was made from actual bone.

Amélie jumped back and almost tripped as she feared, but no one paid her much attention.

“It brings me a lot of joy.” They stared Ana down, even though there were only dark eye sockets. 

“Of course it does. How’s Jack doing, by the way?” She opened a big cynical smile.

“I’m on vacation, Ana!” they groaned and pulled back on the mausoleum.

“If you were you wouldn’t have bothered to answer all the way from New Mexico, you fraud.” She laughed wholeheartedly, like she was having an amiable chat with a friend on her living room. “This will be worth your time.”

This time the whole entity emerged from the door, and Ana gave them way to step out. 

“It’s good to see you again, Gabriel.” She then turned to Amélie. “This is-- oh don’t worry about him, dear. He’s soft.”

Soft? This Gabriel had black smoke coming out of him, he lived in a mausoleum and wore a skeleton mask. Amélie’s definition of soft leaned more towards Lena…

“Soft.” He cackled. “Next thing you’ll say I have a lap dog named Reno.”

Ana frowned. “You do?”

“Of course not!” His outraged tone was all that really needed to be said about it. 

“Right.” She gave him a conspiratory look. “Anyway, this is Amélie Guillard. Amélie, this is Gabriel - he’s a wraith.”

He grunted. “Really? I might as well introduce you as Ana - an Egyptian hag.”

Despite being unfamiliar with wraiths and knowing why Ana wanted to clear that topic right away, Amélie couldn’t deny Gabriel had a point - and it was also funny.

“Nice to meet you.” She nodded, a polite smile on her face. “I’m afraid I don’t know what a wraith is.”

“Short story? A life-sucking shadow.” He was quite dry. “I’d like to say it was nice meeting you too, but I want to know why you’re here first.”

“That’s sensible. Ah… Ana?”

“A mythical spider got her hands on her shadow, and now there are times where she’ll lose all control of her body, despite being there and conscious.”

“A mythical spider, you say?” He glided in her direction like he was carried by the breeze. “Which one?”

“Arakhne, mother of spiders.”

He let out a clearly disgusted noise. “Greek. They’re _the worst_.”

That made Amélie chuckle. She wouldn’t have expected such a relatable reaction from mr. Goth McDeath. “I happen to have a muse girlfriend who is, by all means, the best, though.”

“The best?” He tilted his head, curious. “And they aren’t trying to bind, kill or humiliate her? That’s a first.”

Amélie opened her mouth to reply, but she realized his words were actually the very thing Emily’s pantheon did to her. He was right.

“There’s a reason their mythology is all about men.” Gabriel was surprisingly soft as he said that, like he’d seen it maybe one time too many. Amélie looked away. She wasn’t going to be that vulnerable in front of someone she just met. “Now tell me more about what happened with your shadow.”

They sat there in front of the mausoleum for a good half an hour while Amélie filled him in on everything she could remember of the event and the recent events where she lost control of her body. He listened patiently, quiet like death. When she finished, he gave them his impression of the whole thing: from the fact sometimes Amélie’s shadow flickered back and his own experiences, he thought there might be still part of it attached to her, deliberately or not, and whatever was being done to it was affecting her actual body. 

Fortunately, he was a shadow; he could merge with other shadows and come out on the other side, meaning that if there was still a connection, he’d be able to come out on the other end of it and say hello to Arakhne if needed.

At this point Ana said that there were probably hundreds of thousands of spiders there with Arakhne, and naturally, no one would miss a few hundred that dried out to nourish a certain reaper. Amélie’s mind was filled with the most disgusting scenes, and she could feel hot water rise on the back of her mouth. 

“I’ll come back as soon as possible.” Gabriel said, getting up and creaking his fingers (and apparently he had muscles and bones too, to be able to do that? Wasn’t he a shadow? What the fuck?!) “and I hope after this we’ll be even for that time in Cairo?”

“Sure, I had forgotten that.” Ana chuckled.

“You never forget anything, you old hag.”

With that he poofed into a black, thick smoke, swirled around them with a low chuckle and disappeared into the floor around Amélie’s feet.

“What do we do now?” Amélie looked towards Ana, who was taking a small bottle from her coat and drinking its contents.

“Now we wait.”

\--

Travelling through the shadows wasn’t so bad when you were made of smoke. You heard piercing wails and menacing growls, sure, sometimes you saw bloodied teeth and claws and infinite eyes, but at the end of the day you were fast, intangible and almost undetectable. More solid travelers might not have the same ease Gabriel had with it, but then again, there had to be an upside to living the miserable half life of a wraith, despite the fact you wouldn’t ever die if you kept taking a little bit of life here and there.

The trip was quicker than he anticipated. When he resurfaced in complete darkness, he thought maybe there was some sort of barrier protecting Amélie’s shadow and it was magically trying to repel him away, but it took him a moment to realize he was trapped inside something, even in the form of smoke. There was simply no way for him to slip through.

 _Fine_ , he thought, grumpy, _let’s see if I can tear through, then._

He materialized and immediately realized how tight that place was, and how the thing around him felt unnervingly like a rubbery membrane or… _Something._ He hoped that thing wasn’t Amélie’s shadow horribly mutated, because he couldn’t see a thing and was about to start ripping.

The walls held surprisingly little resistance as he put his clawed gloves to use and tore a hole the size of a finger, just enough for his shadow form to be able to pass through. He found himself in a massive cave with some distant light filtering through layers and layers of spider webs, and the spiders? They were everywhere, in all shapes and sizes, and all of them laid very still, millions of eyes trained right upon him.

_Well, fuck._

It definitely looked like they knew that black amorphous cloud of smoke was sentient and shouldn’t be there. He slowly turned to look at the place he came through, and saw a massive cocoon of webs held upon the ground. It was human-shaped, and so delicate were they not in a part of the cave cast in deep shadow, he’d bet he could see all of its contents and maybe the other side. As things were, he could make out an unnatural darkness moving inside the cocoon, and It looked uncannily like limbs, hands, faces… Maybe he didn't want to see it more clearly, on second thought.

_“Well, Well. Look what we got here.”_

One by one the spots of light from above darkened, like lamps suddenly snuffed out. The spiders started chittering, filling the place with a deafening sound, and Gabriel felt things gliding up and down the smoke. He had enough experience with the supernatural to know where this was going, and he didn't like it at all. He reached back for the cocoon and as the nearest two light spots started going dark, he materialized his clawed hand and tore the thing open, top to bottom.

Arakhne let out a horrible screech fueled by anger and surprise. In the mortal plane, Amélie gasped and crumpled to the ground, clutching her legst o her chest.

Her sight went dark, her hearing got muffled like she was underwater, her body felt super sensitive and wrong, like air had teeth scraping against her skin, the floor didn't exist and it felt like there was a thick goo running down her body with gross bits attached.

She tried to cry for help, but her tongue was an anaesthetised weight loose in her mouth.

"Amélie, stay with me!" She could hear Ana somewhere, but it was fading. "Amélie!"

 _"You ruined it!"_ A different voice resounded everywhere in her ears, angry, known.

Suddenly, eight red glowing eyes the size of volleyballs were right there in front of her, and Arakhne's form with them. What she saw reflected in those eyes... it looked like a nightmare version of herself, melting to inky oil as the giant spider tried to keep it together. She would've screamed, but her loose mouth made a sick gurgling sound instead - Her tongue rolled out and fell. A whole arm was wobbly and unresponsive, and the bits Amélie felt sliding down her body with the goo? Chunks of gooey black flesh, bubbling in contact with the air.

"no, no, no, _NO!_ " Arakhne screamed.

 _"Amélie-- talk-- please!"_ Ana whispered in the back of her mind.

One of her eyes popped out of its sockets and rolled down to disappear into the darkness. She tried to reach out to it but her fingers were curling like banana peels, falling off themselves. It was too much, too much, _too much_ \--!

A million spiders started trying to climb her body and cover her in spider webs, but the inky ooze was preventing them. 

She passed out with the scream still gurgling in her melting lungs.

\--

Amélie came to consciousness flailing on the bed, only to realize she was tied to it. Her body was well, healthy, whole - but even though she could see it, she still felt the sickening sensation of rapid decay. It was way too difficult to keep hysteria in check in the face of that. 

“Easy, easy Amélie! You’re safe!” Ana and a black man she didn’t know came running to her side, so quickly they’d probably been in the room all along. “We’re in my place. Nothing can get you here.”

“The spider is still locked up in the dark.” The man had Gabriel’s voice, and the pale and emaciated skin did give him the look of a corpse. Knowing he had a human face would be a welcome change, once Amélie calmed down. For the moment it was difficult to even breathe, she feared she’d feel her lungs full of gore. She was shaking. What was that? What happened?

The door to the room was almost torn from its hinges when Lena slammed it open and blinked through, straight to Amélie’s other side. She looked almost sick of worry. “What’s-- you’re awake!”

“Lena?!” Ana scoffed, eye wide. “How did you get in?!”

“Through the balcony!”

“Through the-- _balcony?!_ ”

It would’ve been all well if they were on the first floor, but Ana lived in the _third._ Did Lena climb there?!

She completely ignored further questions, however, focusing in Amélie instead. “Love, what happened to you?! Emily almost exploded my phone to tell me there was something wrong and flew out--” She turned to Ana. “Is she here?”

Ana frowned in a way that clearly communicated she didn’t have a clue about Emily’s whereabouts and Lena noticed it, but she coughed and shrugged. “Oh yes, she was here but she left while Amélie was asleep. She spoke of finding something to soothe her while she was flailing about and hasn’t come back yet.”

“That does sound like her.” Lena gave her a look that didn’t match her relaxed tone, and went back to Amélie. “Love, breathe. It’s okay. I’m here.”

Amélie was so tense. The strain was visible, but seeing her girlfriend there helped a little. She was a focal point, and she had the power of a fucking primordial god inside of her - but could she stop those sensations under her skin, could she--

“Amélie, focus on me.” Lena kissed her knuckles and spoke softly but with certainty. It felt good, but so far away… “Breathe, love. Don’t think, just look at me. I know you like my face. And breathe.”

Slowly, with Lena guiding her through the process, Amélie calmed down enough to let herself be held and comforted. Lena told her, with sweet words, how Emily did something similar for her when she was having a bad time, and then she searched further on the subject of how to calm herself from panic attacks. Breathing was key, so she counted the circle of breathe, hold, release, hold, and punctuated it with praises. Amélie felt safer with her there. If anyone would be brave enough to punch a giant ethereal spider if needed, it would be Lena.

"I was…" She tried to talk and coughed. Her mouth was dry and she felt like there was a lump on the end of her throat, but at least everything felt very well attached. "I could see Arakhne. She was desperate. I was-- I was rotting. I can still feel it…"

Lena squeezed her in an awkward hug. "God, I'm sorry. "

"Rotting, you say?" They both looked up - Gabriel had given them some space, but looked over his shoulder at the mention. "And she was desperate about it?"

Amélie nodded. "It was terrible. I melted like a candle, I--"

"Hush, love" Lena gently guided Amélie's face to look at her again. "It's too soon to talk about this. You're going to get anxious, take it from me." And she glared in Gabriel's direction, receiving a shrug in response.

Ana was quick to catch the cue. "Come, let's leave them alone for a moment." She grabbed him by the arm and all but dragged him out of the bedroom, closing the door behind them. 

Immediately he started talking again, in a low tone: "Now I'm sure we ruined it. Arakhne was incubating a copy of Amélie using her shadow as a proxy, but if she saw it rotting away it means it's gone."

Ana nodded. She remembered the clay golems of old, in arabic kingdoms whose names were almost forgotten. So easy to ruin while they were being made, but so difficult once the magic settled in… However, they were always made for a purpose. "Arakhne's going to be very angry, Gabriel. If she knows who you are…"

"Are you concerned for _me_ , Ana?" He chuckled. "After killing me a dozen times over?"

"That was the Witch's magic binding you, _Reaper_ " her intonation dripped sarcasm. "And there _are_ ways to kill a wraith, you know this better than me."

Again, he shrugged. "She didn't see my face, and she may provide the threads that make the fabric of reality - the greek side of it anyway - but she has no agency over it, bound as she is. If she sends someone, well, then I'll have a snack." His chuckle was way darker now, but Ana merely rolled her eyes.

"Be sure to tell Jack, he'd like to be alert for retribution."

"He worries too much already, that cranky idiot." He huffed.

"Oh, is the edgelord Grabriel concerned for his scoutboy? That's sweet."

He huffed, contraried, and gave her the back. "So, my part is done. I'm going back to my vacation."

"Don't you want to rest first? Soon it'll be breaking dawn."

"I can get there faster now, with the long shadows. Goodbye Ana, take a very good while to call me again.".

"I'll keep that in mind when I find one of those old books you really like."

"Necessary sacrifices." 

He poofed into a cloud of smoke and passed through the gap between the front door and the floor, disappearing from view.

Ana rolled her eyes.

"It was good to see you too, old friend." And with that she walked lazily to the kitchen. Everyone could use some tea.

\--

  
  



	12. Somewhere Only We Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _So why don't we go_
> 
> _Somewhere only we know?_

_So this is what they did to you._

Sombra's words echoed in Emily's mind as she stared at the mauled monstrosity at her feet. She was a huge stymphalian bird again, and the metallic feathers on her wings were drenched in blood and guts. 

That night was the first time she and Sombra saw each other after Emily was sentenced to an existence as a robin redbreast. While Lena explained to a very interested Symmetra the particularities of her time powers, Sombra had called her aside, took her in her hands and said the words, her tone thoughtful and surprisingly, full of pity.

" _Symm could've helped you disappear with her tech, but of course you wanted to be moral and play fair... There's no playing fair when the game is rigged, amiga. Now she won't be able to do anything."_

Emily wanted to argue she'd never be able to return to her girls otherwise. The Greek held grudges for millenia, and they had no problem punishing people that were close to their perceived transgressor instead of said person. They were petty… And she knew Sombra knew it too. 

Then there was an acute spike in her senses that signaled something was wrong with Amélie. It hurt like migraines, then it lowered and spiked and lowered again, to the point she could regain control and stop the cacophony of electronic devices she turned on at full volume accidentally. She let Lena know something was up and darted through the nearest window, not bothering to wait for her.

However, the Witch of the Wilds intercepted Emily midway to Amélie. She was so mad and so worried about it she made the radio on the Angela’s phone spit almost word by word that she needed to go see her lover, something was going on. The effort of changing stations like that wore her down greatly and pretty much fried the phone, but they were both more interested in learning what was happening than with the mundane side-effects - Angela let Emily guide her to Amélie, and they found her being carried up the stairs to Ana's flat, passed out. They watched from the window, floating on Angela's broom, as Ana unlocked the door and let a man Emily didn't know bring Amélie inside. Despite being unconscious, her musculature was tense and her emotions so turbulent...

Angela scoffed. She said some nonsense about the man being a surprise for her, and a more interesting part where she assured Emily that whatever was going on wasn't hurting Amélie or she'd know, she could feel people's life force as clearly as Emily could feel their emotions. Usually Emily wouldn't have trusted her, especially when it came to her girlfriends, but something in her words and feelings made her cut her some slack; Angela really was worried this time. She didn't even use her signature witch-bitch tone. Besides, Amélie was with Ana...

They didn't linger much after that. Angela took them to the spirit plane in a burst of golden light and spectral wings, just like the other time. They arrived in the central square of the Houses in time to see a gargoyle impact one of the columns on the entrance to the administrative building, try to hold on to it to no avail, and crash loudly on the floor by their side. The next moment, rushing towards them with a horrible scream, was a bloated, huge, vaguely humanoid thing they couldn't quite make sense of under the failing lamp light. Angela was quick to throw Emily up to the air and turn her into a stymphalian bird to deal with the new threat.

It was an ugly deal. Emily relied on flight and speed to dive and slice the monster with her sharp wings, and even though it was cut open in several places and congealing blood poured out in thick dark streams, it kept trying to hit her with its mismatched hands or debris, whichever worked.

One of these projectiles hit her in the beak, making her roll on the floor until she hit a pile of rubble. Almost instantly a second monster came for her from the dark, this one with two deformed heads full of sharp teeth trying to take a bite out of her. It was her time as a human that saved her: her first reflex was to put her wings up to protect herself, thus impaling the monster on her feathers. She was quick to toss it aside and take flight again, as the sky was definitely safer.

From up high she could see a lot of the Houses, and everywhere there were gargoyles fighting hulking monstrosities with a myriad of body parts stitched to them, all from different sources, not always human. She saw the one she'd cut before being surrounded by three gargoyles, Angela mending the one that hit the column with her magic, a different monster being pushed off the chasm and to the sea by a Higher Muse she recognized as Urania, with her sparkling cape full of stars.

Terpsichore was there too, near her partly collapsed House, making sure a dozen assorted aberrations didn't get too close. Whenever they ran towards the buildings she'd extend her reach of influence and force their body to move back, sometimes walking, sometimes stumbling, sometimes dancing. Emily also saw Thalia, higher muse of comedy, use her talents to make a sizeable crowd fall to the floor with uncontrollable laughter, and by her side Melpomene, muse of tragedy, making an equally large portion of monsters fall to their knees and wail in despair. The joined sound was a hideous cacophony, loud even that far up.

How many of those things were assaulting the place? What even were they? As Emily dove to guillotine one that was getting too close to her Higher Muse, she thought it was absurd that even after days there were enough monsters to cause this much trouble. What the hell had Moira done? And why had nobody arrived to help the houses after all this time?! She wanted to scream those questions, demand answers even though she knew people didn't have them, curse out loud. She wanted to be heard as a person… But she still was a bird, albeit a very murderous one.

If she could sigh, that would've been the sound she made.

It would be a long night.

\--

It took a long while for Lena to calm Amélie. She laid down in bed with her head on Lena's lap, exhausted and numb, finally able to shut her thoughts up. A distant part of her brain registered Lena's fingers going idly through her hair and how good it felt, but the rest had just gone silent - a small blessing after such a big sensorial overload, to be honest. 

However, she couldn't sleep. Ana came back to check on her a couple of times, Gabriel never returned. Lena eventually pulled up an armchair and set it at a hand's reach, arguing she'd try to remain awake with her but it would be difficult. Amélie wanted Lena to hold her tight and scare bad things away, but she noticed she was far too removed from herself to find the willpower to ask or even move in that situation. She feared the sensations would come back with the awareness.

Amélie woke up the next day not knowing when exactly exhaustion got the best of her, but Lena was still there at an arm's reach, all huddled up on the chair in an uncomfortable way. Even though Amélie's feelings were still numb, she felt the affection filtering through at the sight. Her _petit amour_ would never leave her. So sweet…

Lena opened her eyes slowly and yawned as she stared, then blinked and focused on her. A lazy smile made its way to her face, and it was everything Amélie had hoped for.

"Morning, love. How are you feeling?" 

"Far away." Her mouth was dry, she noticed. She needed to hydrate herself. "But better."

"That's good! Let me --ouch!" Lena's neck popped as she tried to right her posture, then it was her right shoulder as she rolled them both. "Not a good idea. Bad chair. Ow…"

"Lay with me." There was only a soft pleading in Amélie's tone as she made room on the bed. Lena all but crawled to the spot.

"Are you really okay, Amé?" She gave her a long, searching look. 

"I'm afraid." Amélie inhaled. "But you're here."

"And I'm not going anywhere." 

"I know."

They remained silent in each other's arms, basking in their presence as if it was enough to shield them from the world. However, time passed - and it demanded Lena's presence. She started to feel the telltale sensations of Khronos pulling her away to his realm.

"I gotta go, Amé" she whispered, regretfully. "He won't wait…"

Amélie looked away and nodded, visibly anxious but trying to keep herself calm. Lena hugged her awkwardly and squeezed - and then her whole weight disappeared sofly from Amélie's grasp, like a warm breeze.

It wasn't Lena's fault, she knew, but it was quite ironic that she said she wasn't going anywhere before. 

Amélie sighed, turned and brought Baguette - who was curled up with Poulain on the curve of her legs - closer, to a light hug. Poulain protested but came as well, spun around ten times and laid down at her stomach. At least the cats were there to make her company, but she noticed Emily was nowhere to be found. Last time she saw her was what, before she went with Ana to the graveyard? Did she sleep out? Where was she…?

\--

"I can't _believe_ you called me when Amélie needed me there!"

Khronos was sitting on debris of a partially collapsed medieval tower. He looked like an aging men with grizzling hair this time. "You found out something important and I was expecting you to come tell me since last night. I was very patient..."

"Excuse me?" A few emotions passed through Lena's face, clear as day: outrage, annoyance, confusion, anger...

"Vishkar Tech."

"Oh!" Of course! She completely forgot about it, but it was justified. Also, she appreciated he went right to the point - riddles were needlessly time-consuming. "Yeah, I was going to come and tell you, but then there was the thing with Amélie and-- wait." She stopped. Her eyebrows rose as she processed all the information. "You knew about it? Why did you bring me here, then?"

Khronos got up and started pacing. For someone with all the time in the world, he was especially unquiet. "Of course I knew. I know everything at the moment it happens, I am Time." He stopped and looked at her, but also past her. Was he looking into her actual past? It was creepy to think so. "But as so I can't interfere, I have to let you live things - discover things - on your own. Now that you know, though, I want you to get to the bottom of this. Bring me these devices and stop more of them from being made."

For a couple of seconds the only sound was the turbulence of the Slipstream around them. Then Lena spoke again:

"Are you serious?"

Khronos looked at her like he had just said the most obvious thing in the world and she was very stupid. She raised her hands in a non-threatening way, but kept eye contact - to show she was as serious as him on the matter. "No, it's just - they're a powerful multinational tech business and a cult, do you really expect me to do this alone?"

"You kept yourself alive despite every one of my attempts to kill you all these years--"

"Yeah, but you've been trying from here and sparsely - I really can't survive a hundred crazy evil mages!"

"This is your task, lest you want me to let you drift away in this realm as you should be doing in the first place."

"Oh great, I bet it's a win-win for you, right?" Lena took a step forward and had to consciously refrain from shoving a finger on Khronos' chest. "I die from a horrible evil magic death or I'm thrown at infinity and you never have to worry your grumpy ass about me again, right?"

He let out a cackle. "Sounds about right."

"Except either way they do something horrible with your stolen chronal energy and the world pays for it."

"And how is it my problem?" He crossed his hands before his belly, completely unfazed. "My concern is them handling my energy incorrectly and eventually tearing more holes in the fabric of time. What happens to your world is really the least of worries."

"Oh but you _really are_ such a wanker!"

He stopped. His eyes widened and then, contrary to any indicative, he started laughing.

"No dear, that-- that was my father. Until I castrated him. But I'm most amused by the choice of words."

 _Great to know someone is having fun_ , Lena thought, a sour taste on her lips. All that disregard was only making her mad and she couldn't really do much about it.

"Why don't you care for anyone? You literally see everyone's lives! You know them all! What would you even do locked up here if there was an apocalypse and there were no people left to watch?!"

"I'd rest." He didn't hesitate. "And slumber."

Lena scoffed. His words were so sure and heavy... She didn't know what to say to that. How did one convince someone with this kind of vision on life that it was worth paying attention to it? He really didn't have compassion. It was mortifying.

"Can I go back to Amélie now?" She said quietly.

He waved a hand in dismissal. In a second Lena was back in bed, right where she was yanked from, and Amélie let out a surprised noise when she felt the familiar weight against her back.

"Already?" She sounded so happy…

"Yes...? How long have I been gone?"

"Two, three minutes." Amélie turned to face her, letting Baguette go. The cat meowed loudly in protest and jumped to lay on the tight space between them. 

Lena nodded, put her arms around Amélie and sighed. "Long enough."

She was sure her meeting with Khronos took more than a couple of minutes, even if he was restless. Did he purposefully make time quicker on the Slipstream so she'd return sooner than it should be possible? Did he do it to appease her? Lena didn't know, she was never sure when it came to her godly employer. Either way, it was nice to be home.

\--

It was breaking dawn on the horizon. They took the whole night to finally suppress that attack.

The gargoyles, as enchanted protectors, did not feel fatigue and were cleaning all the monster corpses and pieces around the Houses. Everyone who was not made of stone, however, was very exhausted. The Higher muses were reunited at the central square and Angela took care of their sparse wounds with her healing magic. Should someone see her at the moment and not know she was the fabled Witch of the Wilds, they would easily mistake her for a spirit of restoration, maybe an angel, even. It raised the question as to why she chose to be such a bitch most of the time if she was capable of things like that.

Emily was taking a last scouting flight over the Houses to see if trouble was really snuffed out this time. It felt like every muscle in her body ached, and she was sure once she was back home she'd crash into that sweet bird's house Amélie put on the bedroom for her and sleep for three days straight. She hoped her girls didn't wake up yet… She didn't want them to worry about her absence.

She flew over the once beautiful woods that surrounded the House of Urania, now mostly ravaged from a previous attack. It was one of the most isolated Houses and consequently, the one who suffered the most - some of its annexes were leveled, and a lot of the main building was being supported by metal beams. Fortunately it was the house of the scientists, so they'd certainly rebuild in the coolest ways.

Beyond that, the woods turned into a mountainous forest and were mostly untouched. She followed further until the mountain got steeper and the familiar construction was visible in the distance: a reflective glass wall sticking from high in the mountain like exposed flesh. Moira wasn't subtle with her lab. 

It had no visible way in. Emily remembered the witch materialized a black door at the end of the forest for them to go through, so it was no surprise the muses were having so much trouble opening the place. And the monsters… She was at a considerable distance from the lab when she started seeing and hearing the most unpleasant things from below. She wasn't going to fight anything, so she turned back and rushed to the Houses. What did Moira want, leaving the muses a gift like that?

Fortunately, Angela gave her a harpy form when she finally started healing her wounds. Being able to talk, it was the first thing she asked Terpsichore.

"We always kept her in a leash while working for us, but besides that, there were only one or two serious disagreements throughout the recent years. I’m afraid I’m as much at a loss as you.."

"What sorts of-- oh I love the sound of my voice! Anyway, what sorts of disagreements?"

"She lacks empathy. More than once she got muses hurt when we asked her to assist them, always because she treated them like research specimens instead of people."

Before Emily knew it, a fully formed reply was already escaping her lips: "It's not that different than treating fellow muses as mere tools for the humans, to be honest."

Terpsichore expression saddened. Emily noticed what she said and was stuttering to try to fix it somehow, but Terpsichore talked first . "Such an effective kind of slavery, causality."

"Moira was always like that." Angela said, purposefully ignoring the elephant in the room. "She cares only fot the knowledge or power she might gain." 

"You mean like you tricking Lena and throwing her into the Timestream so Khronos would give you her powers?" 

Emily stared Angela down and she glared back, unimpressed. Terpsichore raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment on it.

"Everybody would have benefited from that. You'd be a human and stay with your beloved Amélie, I would get powers, Lena would get what she asked me for."

Emily threw a punch so quickly Angela barely had time to dodge back, but the rest of the harpy wing still hit her and made her cough and stand up in a hurry. When Emily tried to jump after her with sharp claws ready, though, Terpsichore raised a hand and both of them felt their bodies stop in their tracks, then go back to sitting in front of each other.

"Please" She sounded tired. "There's been too much fighting already. I understand your anger Emily, it's justified, but we need Angela to help us with this situation. I'm going to have to ask you to settle this after we finally neutralize what Moira left for us."

"Lena _is not_ disposable, you fucker" Emily said, teeth clenched and the sharpest stare towards the Witch. "and if we're done here, I'd really like to go home now."

Angela gave her a curious look. "It’s adorable how ready you are to freely discard your lives in order to save each other. Your love will be your downfall.”

“Better to die for love than to live as a heartless bitch.” Emily said in a low, dangerous tone, and before she lost it again and lunged for Angelas throat, Terpsichore kept her sitting and put a hand on her shoulder

"I'll take you home this time. Angela, do you mind supervising the disposing of the monsters?"

"I'll make sure they all get burnt properly." She nodded and got to her feet like nothing happened, going away like she owned the place. Both Emily and Terpsichore watched as she disappeared among the buildings.

"We have to burn them" Terpsichore started lightly "otherwise they reform in the nastier ways. We learnt that the hard way."

Emily nodded, but she looked like her mind was elsewhere. Finally, she sighed and closed her eyes. "I… I'm tired. I'd really like to go home."

"Of course. Hold on to me." Terpsichore offered a hand and Emily held tight. Close like this, it was so easy to read her emotions and feel the weariness growing along the frustration… Terpsichore didn't ask, though. She understood what it was like.

\--

“So, I called your work, said you had a seizure. We can talk to Angie later and… Well, you get it. You got the day off.”

Amélie looked up from her toast and frowned. “You didn’t need to, I’d manage--!”

“Love, you didn’t skip work one day these two years. Things won’t catch fire because you’re not there, you need to rest!” Lena put her hands on her waist. “C’mon, we’ll put on a movie and snuggle, how does it sound?”

She crisped her lips. “Wonderful, really.”

“See!” Lena grinned. “So what do you want to watch?”

Lena took care of everything. She dragged their mattress, blankets and a big amount of pillows downstairs, arranged them in front of the tv and presented it to Amélie like a royal bed right when Baguette zapped through chasing a toy, making them both laugh. They settled in, using all those pillows to get to a comfortable height to see the TV, and put on a silly romantic comedy. Being warm and comfortable in each other’s arms was so welcome after the previous days, they didn’t say or do anything for a long while. 

“Amé.” Lena finally whispered.

“Mm?”

“Let me spoil you today?”

She opened her mouth to answer but closed it right after. So clever, Lena, using Amélie’s usual words - and even her velvety tone! - against her like that Usually she’d chuckle and say she already did it for herself, rare and precious as she was, but now… 

Her surprise turned into a soft smile, an enamored stare. “What do you have in mind?”

“It wouldn’t be fun if I just told you.”

“Oh? Do you actually have something planned?”

Lena’s outraged expression lasted two seconds before she started giggling. “Nope, but I’ll get back to you on that. And stop knowing me so well!”

Amélie rolled her eyes, still smiling. “Oh, I’m very sorry about that.”

They heard a bird chirping from behind them on the couch, and before they could turn, it threw itself on the blankets like a professional diver. It wasn’t a big fall and it was soft fabric, so it got to its feet right after, looking from one to the other.

“Emily!” Amélie rushed to take her in her hands and check if everything was alright. “You could’ve hurt yourself!”

“Where were you, love? We missed you!” Lena asked.

The movie flickered and was replaced by another, in the middle of a war scene. Roman soldiers pierced celtic warriors with their spears, blood flew everywhere.

“Uh… I really hope that’s not literal.” she frowned. Emily chirped two times, and Lena’s frown only deepened. “Yes you were in a war or yes it wasn’t literal?”

The screen flickered again, this time showing an old monochrome movie where Junkenstein’s monster was being chased by a dozen of knights with torches and zombie omnics start pouring from the alleys to fight them, as the tale went. A third flicker, and they were looking at a brooding man armed with a crossbow, a pistol and a sword, dressed in leathers and a hat. _“We have to kill the monster.”_ he said - and then the TV went back to the original romantic comedy, down to the second it was disturbed.

Amélie was the one to talk this time. “You… Were in a war killing monsters?” Two chirps. “You’re a bird!”

Emily let herself flop to the side on her hands. The TV flickered again and a woman said: “ _oh, I’m so tired mrs. Andersen… Could I sleep here tonight?”_

“Well, we are having a lazy day.” Lena pointed out. “We can discuss this later.”

A last change in the screen to a man standing on the rain with a woman, both giggling like happy children. “ _I love you--” “No, I love you even more!”_

\--

Amélie knocked on the bathroom for the third time. “Lena, you’ve been in there so long. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, just a moment now!” Her voice sounded muffled behind the door. Amélie exchanged a quick look with Emily - currently snuggling with the cats on their bed (they almost never used but the mattress was downstairs) - and went to sit by them, holding onto the wall to support her bad foot. She started scratching Poulain’s chin absentmindedly.

Their day could be described as Lena being the sweetest person on earth and tending to Amélie’s every whim. She ordered a load of japanese food (the cats went crazy with the bits of raw fish they occasionally got), gave her a massage (and also gave Emily one, after watching some videos on it), put on relaxing tunes, let Amélie do her nails, and had them all take a nap in a pile on the living room. They had recently woken up and since then Lena was locked in the bathroom. It wasn’t difficult to guess what she was doing when the smell of bath oils started rising, but she was taking such a long time inside they could’ve probably eaten dinner in that time.

“Are you really okay, _ma coeur?_ ” Her thumb brushed Emily’s head lovingly. “You’ve been awfully quiet the whole day… You’re not like this, even when you’re tired.”

Emily let out a noise that was the closest to a sigh a bird could manage, and leaned into her touch. She wanted so much to tell Amélie every little thing about her night in the Houses, vent about Angela, say how dirty she felt after gutting one too many of those monsters… She was supposed to be a dancer, not a butcher. Then again, she wasn't supposed to be any kind of bird either.

Everything was far too difficult to explain right now though, and she promised she wouldn't out Angela as the Witch. So what could she actually say?

Answering the question the most objective way possible, she chirped once: a no. Amélie's phone on the side table started playing a melancholic song.

_I came across a fallen tree_

_I felt the branches of it looking at me_

_Is this the place we used to love?_

_Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?_

_Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?_

_I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on_

_So tell me when you're gonna let me in_

_I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin_

_And if you have a minute, why don't we go_

_Talk about it somewhere only we know?_

_This could be the end of everything_

_So why don't we go_

_Somewhere only we know?_

Amélie waited for it to fade before talking again. "That is so relatable."

 _Right?_ Emily thought.

“Why can’t things be easy for once?” She kept silent for a moment, hesitating. Emily felt the anxiety it caused her. “Ana took me to a friend of hers yesterday night. We went to a graveyard and met him, an actual wraith” Emily’s danger sensors went crazy in her head A Wraith?! What was Ana thinking?! “to have him help with the body controlling. Apparently he went to Arakhne and she was doing something to my shadow. He ruined it and I felt and saw it like it was done to me, like I was just… Rotting away. It was terrible.” Amélie shuddered. “It might be fortunate you weren’t here, or you would’ve felt that from me, and… Well, I guess you can sense it’s still troubling me, regardless. I guess we are in a similar headspace right now, I’m sorry. I’m sorry we couldn't focus on helping you further these days, my love." Emily didn't let her finish to start chirping offendedly. Amélie didn't need a song to know what she meant by that, and it made her snicker. "What? You are the priority."

Funny; to Emily, Amélie and Lena were the priorities. Lena had shown that for her, The priority were definitely Amélie and Emily… So the words of the Witch came to mind and left a sour taste in Emily’s mouth. Yes, they were fools in love. She stood by her statement.

"I'm done!"

Lena opened the door to the bathroom and a cloud of perfumed steam came out with her. 

"I hope it is to your liking, my queen!" She made an exaggerated measure and pointed to the bathroom with arms open wide, grinning.

Amélie offered a hand and Emily hopped on it, both very curious as to what sort of steamy bath their silly lovely girlfriend was obviously preparing for so long.

Their bathroom was something out of a luxury magazine, spacious and modern in tones of gray, with the centerpiece being a big jacuzzi in it’s wooden platform. Lena put small candles around the dim bathroom, and the air was filled with delicious earthy and spicy notes, with just a hint of pine. The bath was largely covered in bubbles, but here and there, small rose petals and leaves could be seen floating in the water.

"Sorry it took so long. I had to watch some videos." Lena gently pushed Amélie in the bathroom.

"Did you just happen to have all this lying around?" She was clearly impressed.

"Well, I was saving it for after your next ballet debutted, but this is clearly a better time. C'mon love, get undressing!"

"Such a brute." Amélie rolled her eyes but complied. "We didn't even get dinner yet and you already want me naked."

"You knew what you were getting into since the start, love" Lena stared at Amélie's now exposed breasts like she couldn't wait to shove her face on them. "I'm not called the ‘Heartbreaker of Kings Row’ for no reason.”

Amélie didn’t even try to muffle her laughter. “That’s a terrible name, _chérie._ “

“Good thing my game is amazing, then.” She winked. “Oh Amé, you are a goddess.”

The sudden drop on the playful tone was to praise the nude form of Amélie, who opened her arms and made sure to spin so Lena could see all of her. Emily chirped excitedly in agreement trom the bathtub platform.

“I know.” Amélie gave them both a smug look. “Now, inside.”

\--

That was the best idea Lena could’ve had. The bath was extremely soothing. They put a small bowl of water so Emily could have her own bath safely besides them on the platform, and then submerged up to their necks in warm water for a satisfyingly long time.

“I feel so much better.” Amélie kissed Lena’s cheek. “Thank you, for everything.”

“Yeah, mission accomplished!” She saluted in a vibrant motion, water flew outward in an arc and splashed everywhere. 

“Try to leave some water inside.”

“Sod off!” She giggled. 

Emily sat on her bowl and watched them laugh and bicker like a pair of teenagers, and her heart finally started to let go of all the tension her body already released. That was why she was going through the things she was. Angela was wrong - it was because of small things like this day of lazy happiness with people she loved that she’d be able to endure that mess and come out as a human. She was just a pretentious and bitter bitch.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new Year, everyone! Here's to hoping this year will be better than the last, even though my hopes aren't thaaat big... XD
> 
> Song is Somewhere Only We Know, by Keane.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	13. Dog Days are (not) Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Leave all your love and your longing behind you  
>  Can't carry it with you if you want to survive_

A month passed. A lot can happen in this time, depending on who you ask and how detailed they want to be in their accounts. Lena could talk for days unending about her adventures closing rips in time while Amélie would smile serenely and say only that things had been getting better slowly. In simplified list, the days of their group of friends and lover could be presented as follows:

Lena tried to reach Sombra and Symmetra to offer help with Vishkar as Khronos requested, but they said very clearly they didn’t want to involve her in the cultist madness. She had to do the work on her own, and thus far she was closing the ever-growing number of rifts opening throughout London more than chasing after mad mages. On the more normal side of her life, commissions for art were taking a big chunk of her remaining time.

Amélie regained confidence in her control of her body, as she didn't lose control of it once in that period of time. It was a relief, since rehearsals were only increasing in intensity at work and she couldn't afford to have it happen in that situation. She was working even harder as a result, and looking for a way to get to Akande Ogundimu and eventually get his wolf for Apollo. She thought it was an asshole move to steal someone’s dog but frankly, she’d do it if it meant she’d have Emily back as a human.

Emily was in an endless cycle of being called to the Houses to deal with monsters and wanting to kill Angela along with them, and trying not to feel like shit at home because the girls were busy and she was useless. Her only solace was that they were making progress in clearing the woods, and the attacks on the Houses fell drastically because of it. Soon they’d reach the foot of the mountain, and Angela could focus all her energy in opening that damned door.

Hana was doing very well in her job as a professional gamer. Her team was super popular and winning a lot, meaning Akande was very satisfied with merch sales and viewing rates. Brigitte, of course, had all of the merch, sat at the first seats on the arena whenever she could, and even made a gadget or two for Hana between her cosplay-making. A custom headset she put together for her became very popular on Hana’s streams, and now her growing fanbase was inquiring about buying them, which was a good surprise.

Fareeha was doing bad in the werewolf mansion. She passed through the days mechanically, refused to go to the various activities to get familiar and control her changes, and kept to her room the whole time she wasn’t required anywhere. The psychologist responsible for her case was having a hard time making her see her situation as anything but a curse and the end of her useful life, and the fact she was refusing to see any of her friends and coworkers who wanted to visit was making things worse. Ana was trying to help as she could, but even she was at a loss.

The sun was starting to set in the woods near the Houses, and the only sound was of the leaves rustling in the wind. The floor was littered with corpses of snake-like creatures with wings, some bigger than a man, some smaller than a child. The gargoyles discovered the nest of the dragons Moira had been sending to attack the Houses and of course, Angela went to fetch Emily to play the pest exterminator.

They both were in a clearing at the moment, with some gargoyles keeping watch at the edges. Angela was using her powers to heal a wound caused by a nasty spray of acid that hit most of Emily's right arm/wing when it happened. She was currently in the form of a harpy, which made things easier than leaving her as a stymphalian bird; Angela could heal animals, but she was way better with humanoid beings. In fact, she was so focused on the task she didn't see Emily studying her with those ever-changing eyes of hers.

"You know, I really don't understand how you can be this good of a healer when you're an even bigger asshole." Emily commented, watching the golden light sooth the pain and reconstruct tissues.

"Are we in a children's book where one can only do what reflects their heart?" Angela snickered. "What would you be in this scenario?"

"Free."

She let out a loud, mocking laughter. "So cute, she’s an idealist! Do you really think you can pull this off? That they won't find a reason to come after you when I turn you into a human?"

Emily clenched her fist. She wanted to punch the witch for somehow always being able to get under her skin, but she couldn't deny that was a good point. What was to prevent those horrible council people to come after her when this was all over? They did it when Lena made the deal, they could do it again. Still…

"The fact it was the Higher Muse herself that had you give me compensation for fucking abducting me and forcing me to work as your murderous pet is a good reason to think this will work, yes."

Angela raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "I take good care of my pets when they behave." She poked one of the parts corroded by the acid in Emily's arm. She all but howled in pain.

"Fuck-- you!" She gasped. "Why do you like so much to see people suffer?! What's your fucking problem?"

"Oh no dear, you misunderstand. I literally don't care enough for most people to bother. You, however, are amusing to watch - every bit as naive as Lena deep inside, but putting on this righteous rebel façade. Do you want to change the world, Emily? Do you think you can?"

Emly half sighed, half screeched. “That’s the fucking point. I  _ don’t want to! _ I just want to live my life with my girlfriends, but people keep assuming I’m this disruptive anarchic icon who wants to destroy everything they know and love, and I just--!” She threw her arms in the air, exasperated, and immediately regretted it when the wounded one hurt. “It’s not my fault everything is wrong and I have to fight it!”

Angela smiled and turned back to the wound, resuming her healing work.  The pain immediately began receding, forcing Emily to suppress a sigh, rather than giving Angela the satisfaction . “Lovely. Fighting the world with the power of love, one monster at a time. You’re really a magical girl."

“With the amount of shit I take from witches, I could very well be in Madoka Magika." Angela had no reaction to the reference, which was too bad, really. Emily would've loved for her to feel the sting in her remark. She decided to change subjects. “Why are you working for the Higher Muses? I wouldn’t think it was your style to get caught up in stuff like this.”

“It’s not, that’s why it was very fortunate that you decided to come back to our lives. Here, it’s finished.” She took her hands away from her arm. “Your skin is still sensitive, though, so don’t use the arm too much. Stick to your little bird nest and don’t fly today.”

Emily examined her arm and looked at the Witch. “I suppose now you’re going to take me home and we’ll meet again next time you need to kill stuff, right?”

“Why, do you want to go to the movies?” 

“With you? No. I don’t think a single person would like to, in fact. Not even Amélie, if she really knew you.”

Angela gave her a long, appraising look. “Was this supposed to hurt me?”

“That you’re an unlovable bitch deceiving your cousin? Just stating the facts.” Emily wasn’t even smiling at her, her expression was genuine - that was probably the most unnerving part of it.

Angela snapped her fingers and Emily was a robin redbreast again.

\--

Dinner was served in the mess hall of the Hillthorn Education Center, and people all around found their preferred groups to chat and eat with. Reinhardt and Ana sat at a small table in a corner, and while he consumed his food like a crunching machine, she barely touched hers. Her mood was ruined after Fareeha refused once more to either come with them or have Ana take her some food. Ana would take it to her regardless, but the fact that she was punishing herself like this constantly wasn’t good at all.

“She can’t keep doing this.” Ana said, staring at the meat in her plate. “I’ll take this to her and she won’t be able to resist it, I know that.”

Reinhardt stopped with the fork halfway to his mouth. “That’s not a good idea. Even if she’s starving and won’t be able to resist meat, it’ll only dampen her spirits more knowing she can’t control herself.”

She crisped her lips. “I can’t let her starve, Reinhardt! She refused even her favorite meal!”

“I know, my dear.” He put a hand over hers, and it was comical how much bigger it was. “But she’s already afraid. If she loses control for a piece of meat, what will she think of the day she’ll be forced to change into a wolf?”

Ah yes, the full moon. It was looming closer now, and the tension was thick in the air - not only for Fareeha, this would be the full moon of a couple of other residents. They were anxious, but also under guidance from experient Werewolves. Fareeha refused that, and because the rate gossip travels might be quicker than the speed of light, a lot of people had their eyes trained her way, expecting disaster to strike.

Reinhardt noticed the fears written on Ana’s face. Some of them were his as well. “I’ve talked to Harrisson and Mrs. White. We’ll take her to the woods when the day comes, and remain with her on the change. This way no one will see or be impacted by it, and we'll make sure she's unharmed. We can handle her, Ana. I trust my people here as much as the ones in my own country.”

“You’re right.” She pulled her hand back, to her heart. “It’s just a mother’s worry getting the best of me again.”

He understood it well, and Ana was always surprised by how his eyes could turn gentle, even if he was this massive man built for battle. “Please try to eat a bit. I’m going to take some food to her.”

\--

Even before getting to her room, Reinhardt noticed there was something wrong. Fareeha’s scent was discernible in the corridor, even for his human form, which meant it was fresh. Sure, she could’ve gone for a walk, but she never left her room if she had the chance…

Well, he shouldn’t assume things before checking. He went to her door with a tray and a covered plate and knocked lightly, which of course meant the whole thing shook with the strength of it. He took a breath and put on his best lively tone. “Hello, lady Fareeha! It’s Reinhardt here, I brought you dinner!”

He waited a moment, the echo of his voice dying. There was no response.

“Lady Fareeha?” He tried again.

Nothing.

With his suspicion growing to alarming heights, he tried his hand at opening the door. It wasn’t locked, and as he feared, the room was empty.

Reinhardt’s expression immediately saddened. “Oh, child…”

\--

For a mansion full of werewolves, it surely was easy to avoid security and escape from the Hillthorn Education Center. Fareeha was almost an hour in the woods with her backpack full of what personal items she could gather, her good walking shoes and a groaning stomach. It was dark, but one of the first things that changed in her body with the curse was her sight getting exceptionally good in low light. She had to get as far from the mansion as possible, and if she got lost, well, that was the plan. She was good at the survival training they had at the Academy, she was an exceptional police officer and her mother taught her the ways of a supernatural protector. She’d do fine on her own. It would be better like this.

Fareeha stopped to take a breath, leaned on a tree. Fine, of course. Except she’d turn into a murderous werewolf in a few days, and there was nothing she could do to prevent that.

What she could do, though, was disappear and ensure people wouldn’t find her should they start searching, which they probably would. She should keep her pace and get deeper into the woods. There was much to walk yet.

On the two-hour mark she stopped to take a quick rest. She found a small clearing and sat down, took some water from her --cantil--- and let her muscles relax a bit. 

By this time the initial adrenaline of running away and not getting caught had faded, and a hollowness took its place on Fareeha's heart. She had to be alone for now, it was necessary. Nor her mother or Reinhardt, or even the psychologist they assigned for her, none of them could do anything to appease her worries being around that many people. It was a disaster waiting to happen…

No. If she was going to be a lunar time-bomb, she'd do it on her terms.

A creaking to her right took Fareeha out of her thoughts and sent her into alert. It sounded like someone,  _ something _ stepped on a twig. She waited, reaching for a long fallen branch she'd been using as a walking staff. 

A moment passed… Another one… when no sign of movement was apparent, she let her guard down a bit. Maybe it was just something fallen from a tree, after all. The instructors at the mansion did say most animals avoided lycanthropes by their smell alone, they were coded as too much of a challenge to fight.

Threat or no threat, it was a sign she'd better move. She put the --cantil-- back on the backpack, used the tree as help to get up and then--

She heard a snap again, and turned in time to see a wolf jumping in her direction.

It was pure reflex that made her drop her weight and fall back sitting. The wolf passed right where her lower torso would be and landed a few steps ahead, quickly turning to face her. Fareeha brandished the walking branch like a fighting staff; she knew it could be useful.

The wolf growled and circled her while she staggered back to her feet. Ok, ok, she had to remain calm. She did have training on handling wild animals at some point. What did she have to--

The wolf jumped at her again, and she swung the branch in its direction. It only scratched its back on a superficial level.

"Get out!" She shouted. "I don't want to hurt you!"

In response, it tried to bite her legs and bit the branch instead, pulling it out of Fareeha's hands after a brief struggle. She saw herself with no means to defend herself, so her best bet would be climbing a tree, right? She turned and jumped on the closest, lowest one, the wolf trying to bite her heels as she reached and took herself up. 

It might've been the quickest climb in her whole life.

The wolf barked a couple of times down there, circling the tree. Fareeha's heart was racing, her muscles ached with the sudden effort and all the walk. What the actual fuck, a wolf coming after her like that. Was it something that happened? Shouldn't they be friends?l or at least recognize each other as kin?

While all of the thoughts passed through her mind the wolf ran out of view, catching her attention again. Fareeha was pretty sure they didn't just abandon prey like that. Maybe it was going to call his pack…?

She kept watch for a tense, long while, wondering if it was safe to go down quickly to retrieve her forgotten backpack. A glimpse of silver caught her eye, and she found a towering strong man with silver hair and beard coming in her direction, straightening his military-style tank top. Reinhardt.

How could he have found her?!

"You can come down now." He said, and it was weird how somber his voice was. "I won’t bite you.”

Something clicked in her head. “It was you!” She climbed down and made a beeline for him. “How could you?!’

“I wanted to see what you’d do. Coming here alone was a really bad idea, Fareeha, what if it was a real predator?”

“ _ You _ are a real predator, Reinhardt!” She raised a finger towards him. “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing!”

He looked at her finger then back at her, as calm as before. “Running into the woods at night because you’re afraid doesn’t count as knowing.”

“Afra-- excuse me?! I’m going to protect everyone by not being around when the full moon comes!” She turned her back and started walking. She had to get her backpack.

“You’re afraid of hurting people, Fareeha.” 

“Well, aren’t you a genius.”

“But refusing to be a werewolf will only make you turn into what you fear.”

She stopped. “I already am what I fear.”

“You think you know what a werewolf is by what you’ve seen in the force?” He sighed and shook his head. “You’ve never seen a frenzied werewolf.” His somber tone turned grim, his whole posture uncomfortable. “Some years ago we received a call that a werewolf was locked in a small warehouse in Frankfurt. I went there with two others to rescue them, thinking it might be a newly turned who panicked and ended up holed there. Well, it wasn’t the case; we started sniffing the blood a mile before we arrived at the place.

You see, that werewolf was someone a clan reported missing months before. Turned out gangsters kidnapped him and used him as a weapon. They kept him starving and in pain, so he’d turn and eviscerate his enemies. That time at the warehouse they were transporting his cage, it slipped and broke part of the silver plating. It was all it took.”

Reinhardt lowered his tone, staring far away into the past. “When we broke the locks and entered, the whole place was painted in blood. There were small bits and pieces of people everywhere, a car was turned on its side with the front door clawed away from the hinges, metal containers were bent and cut open like tuna cans, and there was a distinct lack of substantial body parts. At this point, me and the others turned, for safety. We kept walking the warehouse and found our man in a corner, curled up on himself, naked, shaking and sobbing. All around him were parts of half eaten men, seven we could count. He’d tell us later they were ten.”

He waited. Fareeha had unquiet eyes, her breath was ragged. She was clearly scared, and Reinhardt didn’t need his wolf senses to know.

_ “This _ is a frenzied werewolf, Fareeha. They lose control and act on instinct. They hunt, mangle, kill and eat people. Do you think hiding in the woods would prevent you from doing that? I found you after twenty minutes running. You  _ would _ go back to the mansion seeking blood.”

“T-that’s not true.” She stumbled on her words. “I won’t do that.”

“If you keep denying yourself, you won’t have a say on it.”

“No!” She shouted this time. “Y-you’re just trying to scare me into going back!”

“You know I’m saying the truth.” He took a calm step forward, then another. She quickly staggered back. “You feel it growing inside, this urge. The wolf inside you will try to keep you alive, child, it. will. _ feed _ !”

“NO!” She turned her back and ran away, deeper into the woods. It didn’t matter if she left her backpack or that she didn’t know where she was going. She had to get away from Reinhardt. 

She ran and ran until her legs protested, but soon she saw the glimpse of a wolf far too big running parallel to her, some trees in the distance. She immediately changed direction to her left.

“Go away!’ She shouted, tears running freely from her eyes. “Leave me alone!”

He didn’t. He jumped over her and stood tall in her path, a beautiful and frightening silver wolf carrying a set of clothes and her backpack in his mouth. He spat those and just stared at her with deep yellow eyes. Waiting. Fareeha had a moment where her whole blood went cold, followed by another where she wanted to turn and keep running, but she knew it was useless and decided against it. He would just outrun her again. It probably wasn’t even an effort for him.

“I won’t come back, okay?! I can’t! They won’t ever trust me again, I-- I wouldn’t! They’ll pity and fear me, with good reason!” She suppressed a sob.

Reinhardt sniffed the air and set his paws firmly on the floor. He started changing: limbs elongating,spine changing, muscles becoming more apparent. He went from wolf to human, sat down and crossed his arms. “Do you pity me? Fear me?””

Fareeha took a look at him and immediately looked away because of course, he was naked. “Can you put on some clothes?!”

“If that’s your primary concern, then it’s clear you don’t fear me.” He shook his head. “Very well, I’ll leave you alone. I hope you know how to survive in the woods by yourself.”

In an instant he was a wolf again, making the change look easy, painless even. He took his clothes with his mouth and ran away.

\--

Those were rough days, but the sense of righteousness helped Fareeha to keep strong in her resolutions. Finding shelter, food, making water drinkable… Every part of the woods looked the same after a while, and time passed slowly by. At least she didn't have to worry about wild animals, her were scent really took care of keeping them away.

The most infuriating thing, though, was that Reinhardt sometimes passed by on the distance, a wolf doing wolf things: happily carrying prey on his mouth, drinking from the stream, running, playing with sticks and stones. He seemed to be minding his business but Fareeha knew, he was doing that to mock her.  _ 'Sure, I will leave you alone, but also remind you of your fate multiple times a day because I've endured it for longer'  _ she mimicked his voice in her head and rolled her eyes. She didn't need his attitude on top of everything.

On the day the full moon was to come, she woke up feeling wrong. Her limbs felt wrong, her chest felt wrong, her face felt wrong - She hated all of herself, and she didn't know why. It was difficult to focus, so she spent most of the time walking around, working out and being upset. 

She didn’t associate it with the moon until the afternoon was beginning to fade into night, and the weird anguish she’d been feeling started turning into affliction. Something was clawing her inside, trying to get free. She realized it was the wolf she’d been trying to starve, and panicked. Was it time? Would she be strong enough to keep the instincts at bay?

It was then that Reinhardt walked in, human and fully clothed.

“Hello Fareeha. I came to take you further away before you change.”

“I’m not gonna change!” She replied, sharply. He raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t fool him, he could see the panic in her eyes and how she was sweating profusely. She was terrified.

“Sure, but just in case.” He started taking off his shirt.

“What are you doing?!” Fareeha took a step back.

“My apologies, I should’ve warned you - I’m giving you a ride as a werewolf. Please close your eyes for a second so you won’t see me naked.”

“E-excuse me?! Stop!” But he was already taking out the rest of his clothes, and she was forced to look away. “I don’t want your help!”

It didn’t work. Fareeha soon heard the sick sound of bones creaking and expanding, the grunting and ragged breath of a huge wolf post transformation. When she turned back to face him, Reinhardt was a silver werewolf with powerful muscles and huge claws looking straight at her, and it made her mad. What was wrong with him?! She said she didn’t want him there a lot of times already, she didn’t need help, and now this - this monster! The mere sight of it sent the wolf inside in a frenzy.

“You  _ knew _ this would happen!” She shouted, hugging her sides. She shook, her muscles ached, it was difficult to breathe. Reinhardt just looked at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about. It made her even angrier. “YOU KNEW!”

It was all it took. Her fragile control snapped in half, and she suffered a quick and violent turning into the big bad wolf she feared: angry, savage, seeking blood. She tackled Reinhardt, trying to pin him to the ground and bite him, but he was stronger and pushed her away very easily. What he had of strength she had of tenacity, though: time after time she jumped at him and he dodged or pushed her back. In one of these attempts he was clawed on the chest but threw her on a tree and started running, hoping she would follow. The further away they got from the mansion, the better.

The scent of blood did wonders, she kept right at his wheels. Reinhardt knew she was younger and likely faster, but she didn’t have the control he had over his body and mind. He zigzagged through the trees and hit her when Fareeha changed directions, the only times when she slowed down. They weren’t particularly strong, just worked to make her angry and dazed, and in her anger, she followed.

Fareeha was eager to sink her teeth on that rival werewolf’s neck. When he was dealt with, she’d go after food; she was starving. However, when she managed to see Reinhardt again in the distance, after she lost a lot of time changing directions, he had stopped, facing her direction. Immediately the smell of fresh blood hit her nostrils. It was a deer, freshly killed, and Reinhardt took some steps back from it when she approached -  _ here, take it _ , he seemed to say. 

She didn’t hesitate in devouring the animal. He sat down by a tree, watching unbothered, and slowly the frenzy in Fareeha’s mind calmed. Food was good. The other werewolf gave her food willingly, so he couldn’t be that bad.

When only the carcass and bones remained and she was sated, Reinhardt grunted for her to follow him, and started running. She did so.

\--

Fareeha woke up feeling strangely good, despite all her muscles aching. It was something reminiscent of the nice pain after a workout, but she was confused as to the reason it was like this in the first place. What happened? There were flashes in her mind, and they didn’t make any sense…

She turned to the side to get up and saw her arm was long, thin and covered in black fur, ending in a big paw. That was enough to make every trace of drowsiness disappear and for her to jump to her feet - only to lose balance and fall back down, because her body didn’t have the same center of gravity, it wasn’t bipedal. She was a big black wolf in every sense, even in tail.

She tried to shout some insult but all that came out was angry whining,  _ That couldn’t be happening, that couldn’t be happening…! _ _  
_ _  
_ “Oh hello, you woke up.” Reinhardt appeared from among the trees, still a werewolf, carrying another dead deer to them. The sight of it made Fareeha want to look away, but her stomach rumbled like it couldn’t wait for the meal. “And yes, I can talk like this. Some of us can do it after a lot of training.”

Fareeha had many questions:  _ how was this possible? Why could she wake up as a wolf, wasn’t she supposed to turn back to human? What happened last night? Where were they? He was planning to at least cook that deer, wasn’t he? _ However, she didn’t know how to articulate the words, and she kept whining and grunting until she barked out of annoyance, then whined because she barked.

“Try writing it on the ground.” Reinhardt suggested, patient.

Right, that was a good idea. She thought a bit on it and drew the sentence in the mud with her claws, very clumsily, likea five-year old:  _ Is everyone okay? _   
  
“Yes. We’re very far from people right now.”

At least that. Another sentence:  _ How do I change back? _

He made a pause. “Well you should’ve already.” She let out a surprised yelp. “I guess the wolf part of you really wants to stay out.”

_ But I want it to stay in! _

Reinhardt practically read the words in her expression, and offered her a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry my friend, it's going to recede eventually, when you acquire control.” He gestured to himself, a big and somewhat proud smile on his face. “Meanwhile, welcome to your dog days!"

Fareeha wanted to hit her head on a wall, and not only because the pun was awful.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always have to thank Rhitta for being awesome, reading and suggesting stuff I didn't think about. You're the best! =D


	14. Virtual Insanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Who can tell  
>  What magic spells  
> We'll be doing for us_

“ _ ¡Madre de dios, chica estupida! ¡Vuelve aquí ahora se no lo quieres tener la cabeza desarraigada!”  _ Sombra got to the railing and shouted down, seeing Lena on the level below, blinking back towards the big contraption room.

“Sorry love, I have to destroy that thing!” Lena shouted back from behind her gas mask, sparing a quick glance in Sombra’s direction. Vishkar operatives were starting to pour out of every door in response to the loud alarm - even their alarm was high-tech, a calm and disembodied voice announcing a breach in security - and Lena knew it would be very hard to reach her goal, but if she didn’t destroy the thing and those cultists didn’t kill her, Khronos certainly would. She couldn’t let their evil hardlight generator - or whatever it was - to keep distorting time in its wake.

Sombra saw her disappear in a side corridor and slammed a fist on the railing. Damn Lena and her hero complex! She wouldn’t be able to save anyone if she was dead, and Sombra liked her enough to care for her fate. Going back in was insane, though. What should she do?!

“ _ Carajo, Lena.” _ She rolled her eyes behind the skull mask and pressed the comms in her ear. “I’m going back in, Symm.”

_ “What for? Teleportation is ready--” _

“Gotta save Lena’s ass.” She waved a hand in front of her and an invisibility enchantment kicked in. She jumped the railing to the floor below, hoping she could catch up with Lena in time.

\--

Vishkar mages and security weren’t ready to deal with a time-altering blinking woman, Lena noticed, and that was probably the only reason she was getting away with running back to the generator room. She was also very lucky whatever Sombra did to their system was still working partially, and the facility didn’t enter full lockdown. Actually, she was very lucky Sombra and Symmetra had done all the work before she went in and ruined everything. Ugh, she ruined it royally, didn’t she? But how could she know better? She didn’t even know they were there in the first place!

Lena hit a magical barrier when she got closer to the room, cast by the operatives still on the other side staring at her, since they couldn’t close the doors. It made her dizzy for a moment, and had her reflexes not been augmented by the time magic she was employing, she would’ve been hit by a dozen magic missiles cast by the mages who were hot in her tracks. Fuck, what could she do? She darted behind a locker and considered her options. Vishkar magic was now imbued with time distortion, right? If she set it right, maybe…

She dashed out again, reaching for the strings of time rather than the physical barrier, and ripped them like a rubberband. The barrier flickered and faded, and the operatives didn’t have time to cast anything before Lena was blinking away again. They did have to duck out of the way of the spells their fellow cultists were throwing, though.

There were two more of those barriers on the way, and it was very easy for Lena to pass by them knowing she just had to bring the anomalous time-loop inside to an end. All her quickness and time control couldn’t help her when she entered the materials lab and found the way to the generator room, though; it was closed by the heaviest of blast doors. How would she get through that?! She searched for an adjacent console hidden on the walls but found nothing, and by that time two of the mages chasing her walked into the lab, firing bolts of raw energy at her. She dodged one and the other hit the blast door above her head - Shit, she’d have to deal with them! - so she blinked - dodged a blast - blinked - threw a chair in their direction - blinked - slammed her shoulder on the solar plexus of one and tripped the other, then used the aforementioned chair to knock them out.

_ Right. _ She thought, her breathing uneven.  _ That was tiring. _

Lena turned all her attention back to searching for a hidden something that would let her get past the door, and as a result, she didn’t notice a third mage arriving. He was quietly preparing his spell, aiming towards the back of her head… Then his eyes rolled and he fell face first into the floor, his spell went awry and broke a lamp.

"What the--!" Lena turned in time to see Sombra becoming visible behind the fallen man, holding a pistol in a way that suggested she'd just pistol-whipped him.

"Are you stupid?!" Sombra glared in Lena's direction, then quickly turned to the open door, kicked the unconscious guy out and brought up a holographic interface that could only be Symmetra's work. "Outrunning them won't help if you trap yourself in a dead end!" The door beeped and slid shut. She dismissed the hologram with a wave.

"Well I'm sorry if I didn't know there would be a bloody blast door locking the room!" Lena gestured towards the door as Sombra turned to her.

"Really,  _ colibri? _ Have you not seen any spy movies in your life?" As realization dawned on Lena's face in a rather comic way, Sombra rolled her eyes and positioned herself before the blast door, bringing the interface up again. "Where would you be without me."

Lena showed her the tongue.

It was only a moment for her to find the part of the system responsible for the operation of that specific door. Its unlocking terminal was in the control room several stores up, likely crawling with security right now. Bypassing the locks via hacking could be done but would be annoying and take a minute, precisely what they were short of.

"Barricade the door, will you? I'm going to open this thing."

Lena nodded and blinked to the couple of cabinets to the side. They were heavy, but maybe she could push one of them to the door anyway.

While she did so - quite painfully and vocally - a mage showed up at the door. He tried the handle and started trying to blast it when he noticed it was locked. Lena picked up the discarded chair and wedged it against the handle on her side. "Uh, Sombra…"

"I'm working!" She grunted.

Right, better not to bother her. Lena ran back to the cabinet and started pushing it with the strength of her blinks. It helped, but she'd have to rely on the quality of the Vishkar door for it to hold until she could put the thing in front of it. It was a good thing they were snobs who liked only the best, because by the time she was able to take out the chair and put the cabinet in its place, a second mage arrived and they were almost done with the door.

"Sombra!" Lens blinked back to her side. "They--"

"I'm done!"

The door emitted a soft beep and slid softly to the side, like it wasn't made from thick reinforced metal. The two rushed inside just as the door and the cabinet were blasted open, and Sombra readily locked the blast door behind her 

"Now  _ that _ they won't get through." She had a smug smile on. "Let's go."

There was a short narrow corridor to the room ending in another blast door, but this one had a button by its side and a sign above it that read “don’t open when the light is on”. Of course, the light by it was on.   


“Bollocks! Do you think we’ll get cancer by going in?” Lena made a grimace.

Sombra all but slammed the door open.

It was a circular chamber with a large pedestal inside, in which a sleek machine with the signature Vishkar design had two concentric arcs spinning around a white energy orb. The last time Sombra and Lena had seen it, it wasn’t on and definitely didn’t have energy flaring out of it like a miniature sun. It was surely dangerous to go inside and be hit by one of those.

“Well, now we have to finish what you interrupted” Sombra gave Lena a look “see that open panel on the floor? We need to cut down the energy source…”

But Lena wasn’t listening to her. The way that machine was twisting time around it made her completely disoriented, like she was spinning into a maelstrom. Her form started flickering, and before long she was blinking around the room like crazy, unable to control it - just like when she Symmetra opened a box full of time-bending gadgets, but ten times worse.

_ Fuck fuck fuck fuck-- Khronos if you’re there heeeeeeeelp! _

She knew Khronos couldn’t influence things like she wanted, that was why she was there, but she suddenly remembered something. Something small from the Slipstream, when she reabsobed that part of her the Witch of the Wilds was using to torture Emily and Amélie. She didn’t have to let the tide wash her wherever it wanted - she could let it flow through and empower her.

Sombra was contacting Symmetra hurriedly as she saw Lena blinking around, trying to find something to yank her friend back to her side so she could drag her to the corridor and out of the effects of the machine. It wasn’t something in any of their expertise, though, and Symmetra was basically telling Sombra to shoot the open panel on the floor in hopes it would cause a short-circuit. 

“ _ It’s not doing anything, Symm, it’s probably reinf-- mas que--!” _

All of the energy flares concentrated on a point, and Lena became physical again there. The energy hit her right into her extended hand and flowed all around her, now distorting even the space. Her eyes glowed like a sort of awakened goddess, and for a moment Sombra feared something terrible would happen - then the machine started perfectly disassembling itself right in front of her.

_ “Symm are you seeing this?!” _ She shouted to the comms.   
  
“ _ I am recording it, yes!” _

It was like watching a car mounting line, but in reverse and without the automated machines; every part was separated and floated before Lena until she lowered her arm and it all landed softly on a pile in the pedestal.   
  
She opened her hand again, and the only active part of the machine, the white energy orb, dispersed itself along with the aura enveloping her.

Lena faltered and fell on her arse, looking normal again and very startled. Sombra took a second to process the event, then realized her friend was probably not well, and she got down to support her rambling in Spanish like a submachine gun.“What was that?! Are you okay?”

“I reversed it. Take it.” Was all she managed to say in a very drunk-like voice. She opened a silly grin.

“ _ Ay Colibri tu quieres matarme!” _ Sombra let go of her and put a lot of the internal components and hardwares in her backpack. She put it on Lena’s hands. “We gotta get out of here!”

Lena tilted her head and pointed to the corridor. They couldn’t see it from there, but by Sombras calculations there should be at least twenty mages arriving there to open the door any minute, if they weren’t already. They couldn’t go that way. 

“We’re trapped.” Lena said, matter-of-factly.

“No we’re not.” Sombra crisped her lips, then crouched and turned her back to Lena, taking the hair out of the way to show her the plating on the back of her neck. She pressed two fingers to a specific part of it, and it opened to show a compartment with a chip. “Take it out.”

Lena had seen the spinal implant Sombra had before, but it never opened like that. She was a bit creeped out by putting her hand in that hole that definitely reached into Sombra’s bone, and made quick - if clumsy- work of pulling the chip out.”W-what’s that?”

“It’ll take you back to my teleporter with Symm if you press the tiny button. BUT BEFORE THAT” She added in a hurry - she knew Lena. “Take the implant back with you!”

How could Lena take  _ a bloody implant _ back with her if it was affixed to Sombra’s back? She was about to ask when an unannounced purple glow rose from her friend’s body, and she vanished in a way Lena could only describe as very aesthetically digital, with poligonal wireframes and everything. 

The spinal implant clattered to the floor.

“Okay,  _ okay _ ... “ Lena tried to keep it together and took the thing in her hands. It was still warm. Okya, that was really freaking her out. “Bloody fucking hell.”

She pressed the button on the chip. Immediately she and everything she was carrying vanished in a spark of purple.

\--

Symmetra made Lena discard and burn her clothes, including the gas mask she used for painting murals, and provided her with ones she’d brought for Sombra. They wouldn’t be able to trace her like that, especially because she’d been wearing a mask. It made Lena nostalgic - it reminded her of her time with Los Muertos.

They took half a dozen fake routes throughout the city and disabled every camera until they could finally go to the current hideout, a place they could reach only by dodging security and entering a tunnel on a subway station. As soon as Symmetra locked the door with a passcode, she turned to Lena. “Give me the condensing device.”

“The what?” Lena blinked.

“Sombra’s spinal implant, as she calls it..”

“Oh, right!” She pulled it out of the backpack and extended it to Symmetra. She, in turn, picked it up with care and took it to a machine on the other side of the living room, one that reminded Lena of a stasis pod from a sci-fi series. She opened the glass door and inserted the implant on a hole with its specific design, pushing until every part of the plating clicked softly. She closed it back again and turned on a display on the side of it, fiddling with some parameters, then hit a start button.

The whole machine (pod? chamber?) came to life with a loud humming, and beams of blue light went up and down scanning the inner part of it. They retreated to their spots and six mechanical arms started drawing a triangular pattern coming out of the implant, forming a shape. If Lena was impressed before, she was definitely mesmerized when she realized what was being built there - it was a human shape. They were weaving a polygonal human out of light.

When they finished their job, a set of new arms started applying a second layer to that first, and then a third. Lena’s point of reference changed while she observed it, wide-eyed - it was not exactly like weaving, it was more like 3D printing, xcept it was extremely quick, and made out of light.

She actually gasped when it got to the final stages and she could discern the features of said printed person.“That’s Sombra!” 

“Of course it is. Did you expect anyone else?” Symmetra sounded unnecessarily harsh, but Lena took a look and realized she was tense all the way to her perfect statue posture. She decided against the retort she was about to give, then.

The last strand of hair was made out of light and the arms retreated on the machine, this time for good. The blue light dissipated like shiny dust and gave way to the Sombra Lena knew, fully clothed, fully  _ human. _ She took a deep breath inside and hit a button; the door opened and she tumbled out.

“Aw, fuck, this always messes with my stomach.” Sombra grunted, then turned to Symmetra and gave her a relieved smile. “Hey  _ cariño _ .”

Symmetra visibly relaxed, but her expression was of one of reproval. “What was this idea?”

“I had teleportation for one and  _ Colibri _ here would never be able to get out of that place. I had to improvise.”

She still looked a bit upset, but she nodded and brought Sombra closer for a quick, rather chaste kiss. Lena’s jaw fell right to the floor. They were a thing?! How come they were a thing and no one told her?!

“Do  _ not _ do this again.” Symmetra reiterated before straightening Sombra’s collar.

“You know me, I never do anything dangerous.” She grinned.

“Yes you do!” Symmetra was confused for a moment, but then scoffed and shook it off. “Regardless, I believe we deserve what a break..”

“Yeah but before that” They both turned to Lena. She was still wide-eyed. “Sombra how-- what are you?! You just walked out of a bloody printer!”

Sombra was taking the question quite seriously, until she heard the last part. Then she started laughing so much she couldn’t breathe properly, and had to hold her stomach.

“That’s not a printer!” Symmetra looked mildly offended. It only made Sombra laughter fit increase. “It’s a hardlight structuration pod built to the specific parameters to make a perfect copy of a human body--”

“So she doesn’t have one?” Lena interrupted. “A body, I mean.”

Sombra was finally able to control her laughter, but it wasn’t entirely gone. She gave Lena a playful look, though. “Where have you heard this story before, I wonder...”

For the second time, Lena’s jaw fell to the floor. “No way.”

Sombra’s smile got wider. “Ask your dear Emily.”

“That’s--! I’ve known you all this time, you always had a body and--” Lena looked for Symmetra for a confirmation, and she merely raised her eyebrows in curiosity. “How-- Why-- Really? What sort of muse? Comedy, or… for the love of god I can’t see you being that one who deals with religious hymns or something!”

“Hell no!” She made a grimace. “If you really want to categorize, then I’d better fit in the Urania/Thalia/or something department, but we have the newer categories, I’m sure Emily told you - I’m definitely a Lovelace. And a RISK!”

“What?” Lena looked more confused than before. Symmetra gave Sombra a look, and she grinned in return.

“Those would be programming and street art. The muses for newer fields don’t have a higher muse” She made quotes with her fingers “so we take the names of cool people in our fields as a title. You at least know we can be muses for more than one thing, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but  _ wow! _ Like,  _ wow! _ No wonder we used to travel London graffiting stuff with  _ Los Muertos _ !”

“Those were the days, hanging around with the pupils.” She saw the question in Lena’s face and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dude, you didn’t get it yet?”

“Get what?”

“I’m your muse, you idiot!”

“Ah. AAAAAAAAAH!” Lena was in shock. She now knew - and was attached to - two muses in physical forms. Was that a pattern? It was bizarre. And cool.

“Well I’m going to inspect the components of the machine, if you don’t mind.” Symmetra excused herself with the backpack. The whole conversation seemed to bore her.

“Wait Symm!” She stopped. Lena continued. “It was you who made Sombra’s body, wasn’t it?”

She wrinkled her nose to the nickname, but couldn't hide a small, proud smile when the body was mentioned. “Yes it was.”

“Could you make one for Em too?”

Symmetra opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again. She and Sombra exchanged a look, and Lena noticed how hesitant they were. It wasn’t good news.

“Not now,  _ colibri. _ ” It was Sombra who answered. “She’s cursed and can’t slip away from her current bird body.”

“But you could before and you didn’t tell me…?”

Sombra once again hesitated in her response, and Lena didn’t know if she was choosing her words to better handle her or to downright deceive her, and it made her heart ache. “I offered it to her the night before the big names came to take her away to be punished. She refused it.”

“What? Why?!”   
  
“She was afraid there would be retaliation on you and your French girl, and she said dodging punishment would mean she thought what she did was wrong, and she knew it wasn’t so. I’m sorry.”

Lena wanted to punch Emily. She had the opportunity and threw it away like that! They’d have a conversation when she was back home. But also… That was very much like her, standing by what she believed to the bitter end. But she didn’t have to become a bird, she didn’t have to lose herself, she could’ve remained with them!

“For what it’s worth,  _ colibri, _ she’d have to hide from her pantheon constantly if she’d taken the offer, and she also didn’t like what that would mean for you.” Sombra shrugged. 

“She’s not the type who hides.” Lena chuckled, but soon she was conflicted again. It was all so close… Why did it have to be so complicated?

“She’s a damn peacock just like your Amélie. You have a type!”

“Oh fuck off.” She shook her head. “I’ll have to talk to her. And to Amé. Wow..”

“Great, later. Now you sit down and I”m going to get something to soothe our stomachs, because I’m hungry and tired as hell!”

She nodded and watched Sombra disappear on the small kitchen, walking like she was completely home. Her mind was spinning.

Sombra was her muse, Emily could’ve gotten herself a body but would have to run away, Vishkar was using some very powerful time warping in their energy generators… Whew, she needed a break.

\--

Lena knocked lightly on the door and entered the workshop. It definitely didn’t look like it was set up only days before, given how Symmetra had it completely organized and equipped with cutting-edge equipment; Lena was so absorbed looking at the impressive amount of gadgets and tools she hit her waist on the edge of a workbench, making Symmetra perk up from her delicate job in the middle of the room. She had all the parts Lrna salvaged from Vishkar's hardlight machine in front of her and sorted in groups, and currently analysed a chip under magnifying lens.

“Fuck--Ow!" Lena had her hands full,,so she made a grimace instead of holding her hurt side. She noticed Symmetra was looking and tried to shrug it off, though. "I Brought you food! Sombra prepared it. She said she knew how you liked it, whatever that means.”

Symmetra snapped the fingers on her left hand and the lens were unmade in light, a similar effect to how Sombra faded some time before. Besides that, the hand she used for it seemed to be robotic - something Lena hadn't noticed before.

It was rude to stare, though, and she averted her gaze back to all that machinery again. Symmetra ran her eyes over the sandwich and the cup of juice Lena was carrying and stood up to get them. “That’s most gracious of you, thank you."

"No problem. Don't you want to join us in the living room? We're going to watch something, decompress a bit."

"No, I’d prefer to do the analysing tonight. The sooner we get more information, the better." Symmetra took the plate and went back to her workbench, clearing a spot on the side so she could put it on it. She went back to work without even taking a bite at the sandwich, and Lena wondered if her urgency had to do with the fact she ruined things earlier.

"Hey Symm." She started, hesitant. Symmetra stopped her job again to look at her."Sorry I appeared out of nowhere and ruined your plans. I didn't know you two would be there. ."

"Well, it clearly worked out well in the end." Symmetra made a gesture to show the several components on the desk. "But indulge me in something. How did you know to go to that specific building and look for the generator? This was not information Sombra disclosed to you, or that you would've learned lightly."

"Oh I didn't know any of the things you probably know." Lena waved herself off. "I was after a rip in time in the area, then I found one of those mages with the spellcasting thingie and followed her." She saw Symmetra purse her lips at the incorrect name and quickly went on. "Turns out she was going back to that building, and the whole place was making time have a stroke - I had to do something. And well, you know the rest: I blinked into the room and accidentally triggered all the alarms and then some. Sombra looked like she'd stangle me when she saw me there."

Symmetra seemed to consider this for a moment. “Fascinating.”

“Uh… Okay then.” Lena shrugged. “I’m going to watch a movie now--”

“Could you explain to me how these senses of yours work? I think we would benefit of a sensor that emulated them.”

“Sure, but you’ll have to fill me in on Vishkar and what the fuck they want here, because I’m done being kept in the dark.” She crossed her arms. “They’re causing a ruckus in time, I’m going after them whether you want or not - and I’d rather not repeat today, too.”

Symmetra nodded slowly. “Vishkar is a cult that believes the world is plunged into chaos and it’s their job as enlightened ones to bring order to it. They believe their efforts will pave the way for a divine entity to come right all the wrongs and bring us into a golden age where everything will have a designed place.”

“Why is it always a shady god?” Lena rolled her eyes. 

Symmetra continued like she didn’t interrupt. “They go to a country with projects of better housing, energy and residue-disposal solutions, and these projects are designed to segregate, categorize and direct people towards the activities they deem necessary. People in the neighborhoods they build end up having no choice but to comply with their caste system, the work available, Vishkar designs.”

“So what you’re saying is, they build a neighborhood they want to be for, say, industrial work. If I wanted to be a doctor there they wouldn’t let me? Is that even legal?”

“If you were within a certain category of people they deemed useful for brute work, for example, you wouldn’t be able to find work as a doctor because the Vishkar employees would be everywhere. They’d make it so you wouldn’t be able to. They’d make you believe so.”

“How could a government allow that?!” Lena gasped. “It’s basically a corporation-run dystopia!”

Symmetra gave her a long, meaningful look. “The government doesn’t care for poor people. Especially when Vishkar is making it sound like they’re bringing an oasis of technology and prosperity.”

Lena knew it was true. She spent far too long being poor and in the streets to know politics were basically bad and cared only for money. Still, it was almost surreal to hear about those things being deliberately allowed. It made her restless.

“Is that what they’re planning to do here?” She said, quietly.

“No. Their presence here in London is unofficial. What we gathered so far is that they’ve bought several buildings and lots of components.” She pointed to the ones on the table. “They’ve built new focal points for the mages and supposedly more than one generator.”

“So what the hell are they doing? I remember you and Sombra saying you figured it out the other time, but you wouldn’t tell me.”

Symmetra closed her eyes for a moment, as if gathering courage to say the next works. When she opened them again, they were regretful. “We believe they’ve found the place indicated in their prophecies to be their god’s gate into this world.”

Lena just stared at her for a second. When the punchline didn’t come, she was really confused.

“Wait, really?! They think their god will emerge in the middle of  _ fucking London?! _ ”

“Distorting time is a point in the prophecy. They wouldn’t be doing it otherwise.”

“How do you even know that?!”

Symmetra opened her mouth, then closed it again. She turned her gaze away from Lena, looking smaller than she actually was. “Because I helped them uncover and translate the text.”

_ Oh.  _

_ … _

_ Crap. _

\--

The alarm startled Amélie awake, something that usually didn’t happen. She prided herself in waking up a couple of minutes before it, and it always made her chuckle how Lena hated that specific habit - only because she was a wreck in the morning.

Lena. Had she returned?

She opened her eyes to an empty pillow by her side, except a small bird was sitting on top of the flannel shirt Lena left there the previous afternoon. A smile immediately made its way to her lips. If Lena wasn’t back, at least Emily was!

“ _ Bonjour, petit oiseau.” _

Emily nodded weakly, then let herself flop on her side. She looked so tired… Amélie raised her hand and pet her lightly. She leaned on the touch.

“Have you been here long?”

She let out a single weak chirp, meaning no. 

"Then rest,  _ ma coeur. _ I can stay here for a few minutes more."

Emily closed her eyes, and Amélie could swear she felt a glimpse of relief with her words. Poor her. She deserved so much better than this, and yet her goddess dragged her into a fight to defend people who shunned and condemned her to this form. Amélie couldn't understand why Terpsichore needed Emily specifically; wasn't she a goddess? Weren't they powerful enough to deal with monsters and whatever else? There were nine of them, for fuck's sake - it was frankly impossible they couldn't handle things by themselves. What were Terpaichore's real intentions with this? Emily trusted her to the point of defending her, but Amélie was not so sure she wanted her subordinate's well being more than she wanted an easy way to deal with things. From what little she knew of the greek deities, that seemed to be their way.

She was really startled when her phone started buzzing from somewhere near her, below the blanket. She didn't remember leaving it there - then again, she didn’t remember falling asleep either, she started patting the mattress blindly searching for it. When she finally found it, the visor showed it was Lena’s calling. She never answered a call so fast in her life.

“Lena?!”   
  
“ _ Hey love! Good--” _

“Are you okay?! Where are you?!”

There was a pause.

_ “With Sombra, like I said in the messages. Didn’t you see them?” _

“No I didn’t - I just woke up” Amélie rubbed her face and sighed. “With Sombra, you say? What happened?”

_ "Oh a lot, love. A LOT. Are you in bed? You may need to sit.” _ Lena then told the tale of her evening, and it was punctuated by surprised gasps and occasional comments from Amélie. Emily also had a lot of opinions on the events, but she was too tired to find a proper way to communicate them.  _ “...And that’s about it. But that’s not why I called right now. Did Em come back yet?” _

Amélie glanced over Emily, who tilted her head curiously. “Yes, she just got home.”

_ “Well let me talk to her.” _

Lena sounded serious all of a sudden. That was odd. “It’s on the speaker, she’s listening.”

_ “Great, so she can tell us both why the fuck she made another deal with the Witch of the Wilds and had to fight for the muses all this time!” _

“What?!” Amélie immediately sat on the bed and turned to Emily. 

Emily was torn between her own surprise and the sense that fuck, everything started to fall apart. She didn’t  _ want _ to make a deal with the Witch, that wasn’t how it went, but what she could tell her girlfriends was limited due to the terms of the deal. If after all Angela broke it because she accidentally talked too much, Emily feared she’d go to a worse mental place Amélie was in her lowest days, when she tried to jump from a bridge.

This was a thought for later, however - she still had to answer her very angry girls right now. The last of her strength was used to try and make a song play on the stereo, to no avail. She was just too tired, and she seemed to shrink a bit, trying to disappear in the pillow. Amélie noticed that, and even though she was surprised and mad and really wanted an explanation, there was a part of her mind screaming that was a conversation they’d have to have when she came back from work and Emily could actually do it. She could be angry but she still loved and wanted the best for her dear.

“Lena, come home when you can” She said, “Emily is exhausted and I have to go to work. We’ll resume this conversation later.”

“Right, of course.” Lena sighed and grunted, clearly not very happy with that. She wasn’t good at waiting. “I should let you do your stuff.”

“Yes you should. Love you,  _ chérie. _ Good bye.”

“Bye.”

She hung up the phone and got up, trying to focus. Bathroom, then shower, then breakfast, right. She could do it. Her mind wasn’t exactly cooperating, though. 

She stopped at the door to the bathroom and turned back to Emily with a sad, vulnerable look. “Why do you keep doing it? She almost killed all of us.” She whispered, then looked away and closed the door after her. Emily knew it wasn’t her fault, but she felt like the dirtiest person in the world at that moment.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¡Madre de dios, chica estupida! ¡Vuelve aquí ahora se no lo quieres tener la cabeza desarraigada! - Mother of god, dumb girl! Come back here if you don’t want to have your head chopped off!  
> Carajo, Lena. - Fuck, Lena  
> “mas que--!” - What the--!  
> “Ay colibri tu quieres matar-me!” - Hummingbird, you’re trying to kill me! (literally it’s you want to kill me)  
> “Bonjour, petit oiseau.” - Good morning, little bird


	15. Symptom of a Stumbling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The weight of love is more than all the world  
>  Requiring a strength I can't provide  
> But gravity, love strangely may defy  
> If only I was not so terrified_

Emily fell asleep depressed and huddled between the folds of Lena’s plaid shirt, wondering how she’d explain things and if her girls would be even more upset by it. She woke up suddenly with Poulain and Baguette curled around her, hissing at something, and it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t a thing but a who - Lena was on the other side of the bed with a hand raised midway to the cats, visibly surprised. Emily didn’t remember ever seeing them hiss at her, too.

“What’s the matter, it’s me…” Lena tried to make herself as recognizable and non-threatening as possible, then she saw the bird among the cats and her whole demeanor shifted to something more sober. “Oh. Hi Emily.”

Seeing the change in behavior hurt Emily as much as the conflicted feelings she felt coming from Lena: the spark of love in her eyes followed by sadness, the disappointment, confusion... Emily wanted to hold her and explain what exactly went on, but at the same time she thought Lena shouldn’t have been so quick to jump to conclusions. Didn’t she trust her?

“How are you feeling?” Lena tried to strike conversation, but she didn’t look like she knew what to say, really. At least not anything that wasn’t very specific pointed questions.

Emily didn’t want to, but she wriggled out of her safe cat fort, and Baguette meowed at her, nudging a small black ball - a blueberry…? A blueberry! - in her direction. It made Emily feel a strong urge to cry, despite not having a way to do it. Baguette made a point of bringing her food, she was taking care of her! Emily had to go back and snuggle, and as a result she was given an unexpected cat bath. Even Lena, in her conflict, couldn't resist opening a smile.

That didn't change the fact they had to talk about the elephant in the room, though. Emily hopped out of the bath - quite easy to do when your cat has no front paws - and walked to the edge of the bed, staring at Lena. She, in turn, sat down carefully, watching from any reaction from the cats. The only thing they did was come closer and sit by Emily as some sort of security guards. It was really adorable.

“So, uh.” Lena tried again. “I didn’t tell everything on the phone, but Sombra is actually my muse, did you know that?”

She chirped once, a no, and a very surprised one at that. It couldn’t be Sombra, she was a person! Besides, she'd met Lena's muse before - She had a mohawk in bright neon colors, usually wore glowing body paint and had those purple eyes… Wait. 

It could totally be Sombra, couldn't it? With a different face but the same purple eyes. Muses were ever-changing, after all, and Sombra cloaked her energy… Ugh, how could she not see it coming?

“Symmetra built her a machine that makes her a body out of hardlight. It was crazy to watch.” Lena stopped, fidgeting; she ran her fingers through her hair and grimaced, as if she was having an internal debate over something. “I asked her to build you one.”

That was something Emily definitely wasn’t expecting.

“She said she couldn’t because of the spells binding you, then Sombra told me she offered it before but you didn’t want it --and it’s okay, I get that!” She added the last part hastily, when she saw Emily perk up. “You didn’t want to endanger anyone.”

Yes, that was true - but Lena didn’t know that every single day since Emily regained her sense of self she questioned this very choice, and she couldn’t get to a final answer. If she’d accepted Sombra’s help things could’ve gone one way or another, but she’d at least feel whole; she would've been able to get what she wanted from both worlds, to the price of being a fugitive. Should she have thought of herself and what she wanted first? Would it have been right to let the others cope with the consequences of it? She wasn't like that, she cared about her people - but they also could take care of themselves...

“But why endanger yourself again with the Witch, Emily? Don’t you trust us to find a way to bring you back?” Lena's voice was anguished, and it brought her back from her brief musing. It was clear that was the main thing hurting the poor woman: Trust. Oh, how ironic it was the exact same thing that was hurting Emily… It felt like a punch on the stomach.

Lena was completely wrong in her train of thought, though. Emily wanted to roar that of course she trusted them, she just never had a say on what was happening, at least not until Terpsichore came to her rescue. She wanted to out Angela and say she really was the Witch of the Wilds and a manipulative asshole, to punch Moira for cursing her and for setting monsters to attack the Houses, to get real answers from her Higher Muse… Yet she could do nothing of those things.

Needless to say, the situation was very unnerving. 

Emily used her powers to boot up the computer and flew towards the keyboard. Maybe she couldn’t talk, but she would type what was on her mind, and damn right Lena would wait to read it.

_the witch found me here, took me against my will to the houses and turned me into a giant metal bird to kill monsters. do u really think Id make a deal with her if I had a choice_

“No, of course not!” Lena was taken aback. She wasn’t expecting something this direct. “That wasn’t-- that-- I actually just-- I’m sorry…”

Emily tilted her head and stared at her for a long, judgemental second before going on with the typing.

_higher muse made her strike the deal to make me human when this is over. thats why I keep going back._

She’d told that part before, when she first explained she was going to the spirit realm to fight, but omitted the Witch from the tale. Damn, Lena was feeling dumb. In retrospect that whole version of the story was fishy - Why would Terpsichore use Emily, of all that people, to fight for her? That did sound like something a despicable witch would do, instead.

“Why didn’t you tell us the truth, then?” Lena sounded extremely embarrassed now.

_the witch of the wilds phased into our house and kidnapped me - btw now I have to fight for her._

_really,_

_you would freak out so hard._

“Well I’m freaking out now! How did she even know you were here?! Is she still using Angela’s form? How did she get into the whole muse affair? How do we know she’s not just gonna hurt you?!”

Emily rolled her eyes. That only proved her point.

_she wants to get into that lab. Im her killing machine. she will keep me in good shape._

“That’s horrible!”

She chirped twice: Yes, she was aware.

“But what if after it she-- I don’t trust her, Em.”

_you apparently dont trust me either, so._

Lena stopped in her spot, mouth ajar, frozen by the statement. Emily was exhausted, anxious and felt a bit betrayed with the whole thing - she didn't really care that she was being unfair at the moment.

“I...I’m sorry. I should’ve asked you first, shouldn’t I? I’m sorry. I was mad, I-- Sorry.”

Emily itched to type that she wasn’t happy at all with how Lena came around demanding explanations on the speaker before even trying to ask, yeah, but honestly it was too much work. Lena assumed things way too often, partly due to her hasty nature and partly because of anxiety, and right now it was messing with Emily’s patience. She should heed Amélie’s suggestion and start searching for therapists again, maybe stick to one for a change. It would be good for her - and prevent stuff like this from happening.

Again, it was too much work to convey this message to words, and before the desire to say some more truths won over her common sense, she flew back to the bed and focused on eating the blueberry Baguette brought her. If there was something she could solve right now, it was her hunger. With luck, the conversation would also end.

“But Em, you might not even need to go back and fight!” 

_What?_

She stopped and turned to face Lena. 

“Sombra also told me where Mr. Ogundimu’s mansion is. We’re going to get that wolf for Apollo!”

Oh, that. Even though Amélie was still working on it all this time, Emily’s excitement with this plan waned as the days passed. There was no way they’d be able to infiltrate a mansion that was likely very well guarded and steal a wolf that clearly liked it there. It was cruel to him and to Mr. Ogundimu.

“It’s in the outskirts of Rialto, can you believe it? Drowned lands… Bloody Apollo being cryptic!” Emily didn’t react. Lena messed with her hair and ended up sighing. “I’m sorry Em. It caught me by surprise, I was mad and I wasn’t thinking. It was dumb of me. Sorry.”

Emily stopped, turned and went back to the keyboard.

_Tell ame what I said. she was feeling awful and this will help._

She took a glance at Lena, then at the cats, and flew out the half-open window.

\--

“...And that’s it, Jesse. I fucked up badly.”

McCree let out an acknowledging grunt, putting a cup with brandy right in front of her. Lena looked at her current empty cup and the new one, and turned back to him. “Are you trying to get me drunk at this hour, mate?”

He raised his hands in defense “You were the one who came in and asked for something strong. I just thought you could use another cup, considering the mood.”

She sighed and downed the liquid all at once, coughing a bit. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Hey Mccree!”

They both turned. None other than Genji Shimada was walking in, so quick with his clutches it usually surprised people. He joked he’d enter the running paralympics one day.

“Hey dragon boy!” Mccree opened a small smile. “The usual?”

“Yep.” He sat by Lena on the counter. “Look who decided to show her face! Long time no see, Lena!”

She tried to look excited, but it was clear she couldn’t do it. “Hey Genji. What’s up? Since when do you come to McCree’s?”

“What are you saying, I don’t.” He winked playfully, but then his expression became worried. “What’s the matter? Did anything happen?”

“I was a dick and upset Em, now I’m sulking.” 

“Did you let her know that?”

“Yeah, but not well enough, I guess.” She sighed. “She’s right to be angry.”

McCree came back bringing the day’s special, a meal consisting of fried chicken with beans, jalapeños and potatoes. He put it in front of Genji and the man started devouring the food avidly.

“I say you gotta give her some time to cool down, lass.” McCree said, coming back to the topic. “Then do something meaningful to show you care. She said you don’t trust her? Well, do something to show her you do!”

“Sure, but I don’t know what. And there’s a chance Amé is upset with me as well, because the way she talked when I called to clarify stuff…” Lena sighed again. “Way to go, me!”

“Oh, you already called her?” McCree raised an eyebrow. 

“On the way here. She says she doesn’t know if she’s relieved or more worried now, but she said clearly that I know how Em comes back from her work on the other side and I could’ve waited with the questioning.”

“That sounds bad.” Genji observed. McCree gave him a look and he shrugged in response. “B-but they love you, that’s the most obvious thing since the sexual tension between my bro and McCree--” McCree choked and had a violent fit of coughing upon hearing that “--you just need to have an honest talk about what happened.”

“Listen here Genji, you little shit” McCree was a shade of red leaning to purple, and they didn’t know if it was due to the coughing or embarrassment. “It’s your brother who keeps firing arrows at me--”

“Ah yeah, big deal. Hanzo doesn’t know how to show affection, let alone that he wants to fuck you.” He shrugged again. McCree’s eyes were so wide it looked like they could pop out of their sockets any moment.

They kept bickering, and the absurdity of it made Lena forget herself for a moment and laugh, which helped with her mood. Those guys were as much part of what she called home as Ana and her shenanigans, even as Winston, Amélie and Emily. She missed seeing them more often.

For the record, Lena agreed with Genji; Hanzo totally wanted to have some sweet hatefuck with Jesse, and everyone but him could notice it. 

\--

Amélie was a little surprised when Angela called inviting her to a coffee shop not terribly far from the Opera House. It was about two weeks or so they didn’t talk, with both of their crazy routines taking most of their time and energy, so it’d be good to meet her and unwind for a moment.

The place had a vintage aesthetic with its wooden interior, and was widely known for making the craziest beverages - hence its name being “The Alchemist’s Cabinet”. Amélie made a mental note to bring Lena around some time and they could try the “Pride Concoction” - she didn’t know how they did it, but it had the colors of the pride flag on it.

She and Angela got a nice table near the window, made their order and waited. Angela looked like the definition of exhaustion: she had deep bags under her eyes, her bun was messy and her clothes disheveled, and even her movements had a certain delay to them. Her eyes were very much alive and observant, though.

“I assisted in a difficult surgery today” She said, giving Amélie a very tired smile. “Or should I say, since yesterday.”

“You didn’t sleep this entire time?” Amélie frowned. ”You should go home and rest, Angela!”

“That’s nothing; I just need more coffee and your company.”

Amélie was clearly not convinced. “You’re going to kill yourself like that.” 

“My record is three days and five hours, then the nurses gave me an opiate. ”Angela looked very giddy about it. Doctors were weird. “Besides, I’m already dead inside... So, what do you tell me? How’s life going?”

“Oh it’s fine. Rehearsals for the ballet are in full swing, we’ve been making astonishing progress with the third movement…” She went on happily babbling about how proud she was of her dancers, how much she liked seeing their improvement, and how the production was going to be superb… Their drinks arrived and Angela took it as an opportunity to ask about Lena and Emily - after all, it was too long since they saw each other.

Or so she wanted Amélie to believe, anyway.

Angela was a master of looking concerned, sweet and helpful; she made her questions in just the way to encourage Amélie to talk more than she really should. It wasn’t long until her cousin was spilling the beans about the events of the day, unaware she was rambling about the Witch of the Wilds to the very Witch of the Wilds. Angela was startled by the facts at first, thinking Lena somehow knew her identity when she confronted Emily, but as the account of the day progressed and Amélie was clearly more exasperated with the whole ordeal than with her, she was sure Emily hadn’t delated her and the girls didn’t connect any dots. Good. She could use that.

“...I don’t like it at all, Angela. I can’t help but think there’s a catch, that she’ll fulfill her part of the deal and then hurt Emily because she’ll be free to do it.”

Angela took a sip of her latte with honey and vanilla. “It seems to me she does things based on how she can profit from them, no? What would she gain by doing that?”

“Amusement? She’s possessed you before just to mess with us, Angela. She’s _evil._ ”

“Hm. That’s a good point.”

Amélie sighed and stared at her tea. “We’re going to have to talk and find better answers to this.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a solution. After all, from the little I know of Emily, she’s probably doing this so you don’t have to worry about it, right?”

“Certainly, but we _want_ to worry about it” Amélie raised her hands, exasperated. “She doesn’t have to do things alone, or hide things because we’ll be concerned. It’s better that we know!”

“Maybe, but what can you effectively do about it? Go after the Witch?”

“Lena beat her once.”

“Lena is almost a goddess in that weird dimension by what you told me.” Angela quickly pointed out, taking a sip of her latte to conceal the face she made for a second.

Fortunately, Amélie didn't seem to notice. “That’s true, but I don’t think we want to fight anyone, anyway. We’ll just try to, I don’t know, go after that wolf as soon as possible. Lena has a location now.”

_Oh did she, now?_

“I don’t think trying to steal a dog from a millionaire in his own house is a good thing, Amé…”

“Do you have any other ideas?”

“I don’t know, hire someone to snatch it for you?” Angela shrugged. “I’m just trying to give you a sensible opinion…”

“By telling me to hire a professional thief, I see.” Amélie chuckled.

“They’d certainly do the job better than you!” Angela teased. 

“I’ve thought about that, actually. I don’t think Apollo would look kindly upon me paying someone to do it, though. You know how it is, effort and valor and everything.”

“Well, we're way past the time of myths now, things are different… I don’t think he’d mind as long as he got what he wanted. Isn’t that how Greek gods work, in the end?”

“I guess?” She scoffed.”I can’t possibly know .”

“Shouldn’t Emily?”

“She’s never really seen any of the greater ones.” 

“And yet you received a task from Apollo directly?” Angela paused for effect. “What makes you so special? Don’t get me wrong Amé, I you’re very special to me, but--”

“I’m a regular person?” She smiled. That was one of the things that was on Amélie's mind for a couple of months now. “I may be, but I live with a woman who works for a trapped titan and a muse-turned-bird that tends to bring quite the mayhem wherever she goes. I’d understand if the gods took some peeks at us from time to time - I would, in their place.”

“I don’t know, it still sounds fishy to me. Be cautious, okay? It wouldn’t surprise me if this wolf turned out to be a powerful monster that’ll try to kill you. That sounds a lot more like something a god would set you up to do.”

“We’ll be okay, Angela. We just have to find a way to get into the mansion.”

“ _That’s_ the biggest problem?” Angela scoffed. “Don’t you remember that time in the chateau, in your mother’s charity ball?”

Amélie frowned, confused. “Which one? There were many.”

“The mardi-gras one.”

It took her a moment, but Amélie remembered the borderline-vulgar opulence of it. Her parents even hired gondoliers from Venice to bring people from the shore to the chateau, everyone had lavish costumes, a sea of masks… The most vivid memories made her snicker: Angela and she sneaking into the cellar, finding a servant getting drunk along some gatecrashers, then sitting with them to share the expensive wine-- wait. “Angela you’re a genius!”

“No I’m not - you’re the one not thinking.” She shrugged. “Rich people love throwing parties, you just have to find out if he plans to have one and when.”

“But what if he’s too reserved to have one at his house?”

“Then I’d really consider the thief idea. Or you hire someone to con the staff and make them think there’ll be a party, I guess that’s possible.Or you convince him to have one.”

“You’re a genius.” Amélie repeated, mesmerized.

Angela opened a smile and took a big gulp of her latte. “That’s why I’m here.”

\--

No one could say Lena wasn’t trying. She got home with cat treats, a fresh bunch of strawberries (Emily’s favorites) and a batch of tortillas from McCree’s place for dinner. She found the cats playing on the rug and a soft piano track on the stereo, playing for an Emily perched on the couch. As soon as they saw each other, Lena opened an apologetic smile.

“Hey Em. Can we talk?” Two chirps: Yes. “Great! Let me just…”

She put her bags down on the center table and took out the treats.The mere sound of the package made Poulain and Baguette perk up and run towards her, all excited. She opened it and gave a couple of treats to each, then put it aside. Next, she took out the strawberries, opened the protective plastic and set it down on the table.

“They’re for you, love. Help yourself, I’ll be back in a sec.”

She went to the bathroom and when she came back everybody was happily eating their treats. Emily picked her strawberry on her beak and flew up the stairs, hoping Lena would follow, and waited by the computer. It was on and already had text typed on it. 

“Wow, someone’s been busy.” Lena commented with a side smile, sitting down to read the thing.

_It hurts, knowing the first conclusion you jumped to was that I made a deal with the witch who tried to kill us by my own volition, but I guess I couldve told you first if I wanted to avoid that. And I guess I didnt tell you because I was afraid she would break the deal, true, but also because I didnt know how youd react. Getting tangled in spirits’ business can lead to terrible things - you’ve seen it firsthand before. Besides, theyre muses, theyre my kind, and terpsichore had my back. I thought I had it under control._

_Of course, none of this is justification for me saying you dont trust me. I was too harsh, I got mad. I can understand why you were startled. Its the witch of the wilds, shes a bitch, she tried to kill us, she doesnt really care for my well being. But please let me try? I think we have a real chance at getting into that lab. We’re getting close. Thats the only reason I can still stand it. Besides, she heals me before we come back… could be worse, right?_

Lena messed with her hair, grimaced, sighed. She stood in silence for a moment, conflicted, then finally looked at Emily. “You sound like you’re in an abusive cycle, love.” She said, quietly. “We’re getting close now, it’ll work this time. She lets me get hurt but it’s okay, she heals me afterwards.” Lena sighed. “That’s the sort of thing my mother used to justify my dad being a terrible person.”

The wave of sadness and regret coming from her words caught Emily unprepared. She expected them to talk, maybe even argue to try to get to a middle ground. Accidentally triggering painful memories wasn’t on the plans. 

“Are you _sure_ you can do this? I… It was so easy to believe when Sombra said you’d made a deal, you know? Not because you’d turn to easy solutions, but because-- When I swapped my body for one for you, she made me believe it was the best thing I could do in a hopeless situation. I was feeling like the worst person in the world and she gave me a way out. Now, it must suck so hard to be a bird and not be able to do anything, so I thought she’d done it to you too. It sucks, but this isn’t the only way. You _don’t_ have to fight. You have us, all of us, and we’re breaking your curse, I promise! But this is insane, Em. We’ve talked about this. The only thing that made us let you go and fight was because you said Terpsichore was the one looking for you, and we know she cares, but if you’re tied to the Witch...”

Emily came closer and snuggled against Lena’s arm. Somewhere on the internet browser a new tab started playing an instantly recognizable song on youtube.

_Oh no, not I, I will survive_

_Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive_

_I've got all my life to live_

_And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive_

_I will survive, hey, hey_

Lena couldn’t help but laugh. “Em!”

Emily had as much of a smug expression as a robin can manage, which isn’t much, but that aura just radiated from her. Lena ruffled her feathers and let her shoulders sag in relief.

“I’m sorry, love. I should’ve trusted you there, so I’ll do it now. If you say you can do it, I trust you. Just be careful, okay? Amé and I will be doing our best here and hopefully get the wolf to Apollo before you have to go back and do crazy stuff.”

The song changed.

_Who let the dogs out_

_Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof_

_Who let the dogs out_

_Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof_

_(x2)_

Of course Lena scoffed and laughed and poked that little bird because she was apparently very silly that day.

\--

When Amélie arrived home, Lena was lying on the couch watching cartoons and there was a pile of cats and a bird on top of her. The sight immediately made her warm inside, especially when all of them noticed her coming in: the cats jumped and came to greet her, Emily flew to her shoulder and Lena opened a wide grin.

She loved getting home to this.

“Evening, disney princess!” Lena sing-sang, sitting on the couch. “Was the coffee shop any good?”

“It was an exquisite place. I have to take you there.” Amélie was scratching under Poulain’s chin, then Baguette’s, and finally she kissed the top of Emily’s head. “Should I assume everything is good between you two?”

Lena and Emily nodded, then giggled (or chirp-giggled) when they noticed they were doing it at the same time.

“Yeah. Em’s left a text on the computer, we talked a bit. It’s on so you can read it too and give your opinion.” She waved in the general direction of the rooms upstairs.

“I’ll do that. But first - Angela gave me a great idea for the wolf situation.”

Emily perked up, alarmed. Amélie was with Angela? Did she tell her about the fight? Oh no…!

“We’ll make Ogundimu throw a party and we’ll slip in.” 

“What? How are we supposed to convince him?” Lena frowned.

Amélie gave her the smug smile of someone who’d already traced an entire plan in her head. “We? Oh, we won’t. But I recall suggestions are something the muses are really good at, and we just found out about yours…”

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Rhitta! You keep saving me!
> 
> Songs this chapter:  
> I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor  
> Who Let the Dogs Out - Baha men


	16. The Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Hiding from the sunshine  
>  Wandering in the shade _

Lena wasn’t sure Sombra would appear when she sent the message, or how long it would take. Even though Lena asked her to come with urgency, things always moved in Sombra’s terms, meaning people didn’t find her; she found people. 

Great was her surprise when Sombra and Symmetra walked out of an elliptical portal device in the middle of her back garden, only a couple of hours after.  _ “The visit was overdue” _ , Sombra said in her usual cheeky tone,  _ “so what do we get for dinner?” _

The beginnings of a plan were explained over pizza and beverages of choice. It would be oh-so-easy for Sombra to go and whisper in Akande’s ear about a celebration, stroke his ego to make him think he deserved it… He had so much money, why not expend a tiny part of it? What was life without a little fun? Oh, the things Sombra could influence him to come up with made her shiver in anticipation.

In the end, though, Sombra laughed and declined their request. As fun as it would be to wrap a millionaire around her finger, they didn’t need her for what they wanted - he was planning to have a party already, and if those silly girls did their homework, they could’ve learned that on their own. It was okay; Teacher Sombra could give them the info. Lena was helping her with Vishkar, after all.

“It’s something I discovered along with the location of his mansion, really. He’s planning on giving his  _ Mecha Guardians _ team a party if they get into the quarter-finals. He’s so very happy with them, you see; they’re good  _ and _ popular, merchandise is flying off the shelves.”

“Wait, the  _ Mecha Guardians _ team?” Lena blinked. “That’s Hana’s team!”

She watched every match of theirs to cheer on her friend, and with her limited understanding of the game, she knew they were really, really good. Hana and Yuna were super popular with their friendly rivalry as the Tank and Attack Mechas respectively, and they put up a show that made the crowd go wild in the arena every time. Of course Ogundimu was happy with them. They were amazing.

“That’s… frustratingly unexpected.” Amélie crisped her lips. “Do you think Hana knows about that party?

“Last time I asked she didn’t even know where Ogundimu lived, but I’m going to call her.” Lena nodded. “Oh god, they’re totally gonna make it to the quarter-finals, I know it. We’re going to get a ride to Rialto!”

\--

Hana didn’t know about the party, but telling her served as the ideal motivator: she trained twice as hard to ensure her game was sharp for the next matches, sometimes having to be reminded to eat and take breaks. When time came a couple of weeks later, the whole crew dressed in the team’s colors (pink and white) and went to watch the decisive matches: Brigitte, Hana’s parents, Lena, Emily (hidden in Lena’s hoodie to avoid security, even though she was registered as a familiar and could go pretty much everywhere), Sombra (in her incorporeal form) and even Amélie, who sat near the parents so they could bond over the fact they had little clue about how that game worked. 

It was a delightful evening. The fans were engaged, there were raffles and entertainment pre-matches, Lena and Brigitte had enough time to explain what was what in the game to their uneducated friends, and before long, the lights went down and the teams were announced by an enthusiastic caster. The players came one by one through the main corridor to the stage, passing through the vip seats where people cheered them on.

When Yuna came, the place erupted in cheering. She sauntered to the stage blowing kisses around, winking and swaying. When Hana came it was equally loud, but the difference in her persona was stark: she raised her hands in the victory symbol and walked in a confident stride, with a bright smile on her face. She scanned the crowd for Brigitte and was surprised to see that many of her friends there; she blew them a huge kiss and practically ran to the stage afterwards.

As Sombra was currently incorporeal and only visible to Emily and the spirits around, she got to go and peek over the shoulders of the gamers when the match started, infiltrate their comms, she could even mess with the game ever so slightly one team would be at a imperceptible disadvantage if she wanted (but she didn’t). It was amusing for her to go and see that event happening, then go backstage and see all the people working their asses off to make sure everything would go well with the game and broadcasting. All that sweet, sweet tech. She could mess it up so easily, chaos would be installed… But she didn’t want to. Not at the moment, not with them, not unless needed this time. She believed Hana’s team would win, but she always had backup plans…

She shouldn’t have bothered, in the end: the team did win by a comfortable margin, and so, they were in the quarter-finals. That night, the group celebrated in Hanzo’s restaurant, just like the first time Hana won on a stage, and karaoke was an exquisite and fun experience with Emily and Sombra - now corporeal again - messing with the machine to switch people’s songs.

The next afternoon, Hana called Lena with the good news: Ogundimu finally told them about the party he'd throw for them at his mansion in Rialto, next week, they were allowed to bring some guests. It would also be a cyberpunk-themed party, to make things interesting; so they'd better come up with creative costumes.

Of course, that would be a task fit for Brigitte's cosplay-making talents, and Amélie's experience with ballet costumes and almost infinite money cheat.

They had a very busy week, but also a lot of fun coming up with all sorts of looks for everyone in the group. Sombra, meanwhile, dug more info on the mansion itself and developed a gadget to jam the security systems(that would cost them, of course - when Emily was back at her human form she’d tell Sombra everything she wanted to know about the peculiar events happening in the Houses and about the Witch of the Wilds) and Hana and Emily hanged around them all like curious kids.

Eventually time came, and they all went to take the flight Ogundimu booked for them. It was amazing how many looks the group drew as Amélie sauntered the airport with an uncaged bird sitting on her shoulder. She welcomed the attention like a queen, and every time an employee came to ask about it she had Lena flash the familiar documentation they had made months before. It was an amusing roleplay.

On her part, Hana recorded a small video inside the plane to put in her channel before they took off, showing all her teammates and their guests ready to fly, and another one when they exited the airport near Rialto. There was a private bus waiting, and it took them to a nice hotel in the city where they could rest and get changed for the party at night.

Lena flopped on the bed and sighed happily. It was so soft, and she was so stiff after traveling…

“Rialto, here we are.” Emily landed and flopped on her chest, wings comically open. “Just some more hours, love. We’ll bring you back.”

“That’s why I paid for the best room.” Amélie had a smug tone. She was searching her purse for something. She found a couple of pads and ran to the bathroom.

“Gee, Amé’s so fucking rich.” Lena giggled. “Aw, I’m sore.” A lullaby started playing on the phone in her pocket. “No, I don’t-- I wanna see the city, you know? I’ve never been abroad like this.”

The song changed.

_ “Stay, you can leave tomorrow _

_ Stay, wait until tomorrow _

_ Please stay” _

“But Em…!”

A knock on the door interrupted them, followed by Brigitte’s muffled voice: “Hey girls, we’re heading out with Yuna and her brothers, do you want to come?”

“Sure!” Lena picked Emily up and jumped from bed, putting her back on the bed despite all her protests. She opened the door to Brigitte with a silly grin. “Just give me a sec to ask Amélie, she’s in the bathroom…”

“Don’t worry, Hana’s also taking a bath. Rendezvous at the entrance in thirty minutes?”

“Deal.”

It took a bit more than that, but it was frankly expected when it came to this sort of thing. They met almost an hour later and went to explore the city with Amélie, a recurring visitor, and she took them sightseeing and to a coffee shop she knew they could get to on foot; she was purposefully leaving the gondola ride last because they were all tired and it would certainly make them relax and want to go back to the hotel to have a little nap before their time was up.

Yuna was surprisingly chill and reserved out of her gamer persona, D.mon. She and her two brothers were impressed by the distinct architecture of Rialto and took a lot of pictures, and she made jokes with Brigitte and Hana a lot of the time. That wasn’t to say she didn’t trick her beloved rival from time to time; they bickered for three blocks straight before Amélie had to ask them to stop, or everyone else would have an asphyxiation caused by laughter and she wasn’t very keen on taking them to the ER.

They got on the gondolas when the afternoon was drawing to a close. Amélie and Lena secured one for themselves and let the omnic wearing the traditional attire take them away as they snuggled against each other and watched the sky turn orange as the sun started to descend.

“Do you think Apollo will keep his part of the deal, Amé?” Lena looked up at her, searching her expression.

“Well, he’s a god. He has a reputation to maintain, so yes, I think so.”

Lena opened a soft smile and hugged her closer, resting her head on her shoulder. “God, I’m going to hug her for a week straight.”

Amélie side-eyed her. “As if you could stay still all this time.”

“Hey!”

She chuckled. “I can’t wait.”

Lena nodded. She couldn’t either.

\--

“Lena, over here!” Hana waved towards her friend.

In the middle of all the people waiting for mr. Ogundimu’s bus in the hotel hall, Lena was able to see her and waved back, making her way around people with the well-trained habits of a Londoner who was always running.

“Girl, I love your outfit!” Hana pointed to the glowing machine on Lena’s chest “That’s awesome! And how did you do that to your hair?!”

Lena’s hair was spikier than ever, and completely white. She had a set of spiked goggles laying on her forehead, heavy black makeup around her eyes and wore black lipstick to match. A clunky white machine made by Brigitte was strapped to her chest and emitted a circular blue glow; a black leather jacket with patches (Hana spotted the UK flag, the lesbian and gay flags, one with a gorilla head and another one saying trans rights), fingerless gloves and stripped pants with some cuts completed the look. She couldn’t be more punk, or more cyber, for the matter.

“Ah, it’s a glamour. Believe it or not, Amé bought it on the internet and we went on videocall with the mage lady a couple hours ago for her to apply it. It was fun!” She messed with her hair, absentmindedly. “And what about you? You’re wearing the uniform for the mecha team!”

“Right?! It’s just like in the game, it’s awesome!” Hana side-hugged Brigitte, and despite basically throwing herself at her, Brigitte didn’t budge an inch. “Thanks kitty!”

She did, however, blush at the compliment. “Ah, you know, the best for my girlfriend!”

Hana was wearing a blue and white jumpsuit with white plating on the shoulders, gloves and her bunny logo on the chest. She also had her signature triangles painted on her cheeks and the iconic headphones, currently resting around her neck. Brigitte, on her side, wore an impressive mix of mechanic attire and armor plating, with her whole left arm and chest covered in armor, armored boots and goggles, while the rest was a red jumpsuit, a leather glove, a bandana, pouches on her reinforced belt and a piece of cloth strapped to her hip that give the whole thing a charming touch. Honestly, she was the only one who could make that sort of costume look badass and hot at the same time.

“So, where’s Amélie? And Emily?” Hana asked.

Lena crossed her arms, making a grimace. “They kicked me out of the room, can you believe it? Fuck, I want to know what they’re going as!”

Brigitte let out a hearty laugh at that statement. “There’s a reason we kept the costumes secret for the whole week, Lena.”

“And what is it?”

“You’ll see.”

“Bollocks!”

It would’ve been nice to say they came down soon, but that just wasn’t the truth; it took almost three quarters of an hour for it to happen, while the three friends were taking a look at the other people’s costumes and grading them. As always, the crowd parted for Amélie, and there she was, criminally beautiful, wearing black matte vinyl neck to toe - except in the area of her belly, where it was blood red. She had a shoulder pauldron and armored plates with big needles (that looked threatening but were in fact made from soft rubber) on her left arm, armored boots, belts with military pouches attached and a forehead piece that looked like slide-in precision lens. She was an embodied cyberpunk femme fatale, and it made Lena completely weak on her knees.

And, of course, there was a very smug robin perched on her pauldron, with a tiny bow tie on it.

“Bloody hell, Amélie.” Lena whispered. “Brigs hold me, I’m falling in love all over again…”

She actually fell back, to make a point. Brigitte caught her in time for Amélie to arrive.

“Hello, fellow associates.” She had velvet enveloping her words, her French accent especially alluring.

“Oooh you vixen, you’re doing this on purpose.” Lena put a hand on her forehead and a silly smile on her face.

“Of course I am. It is as satisfying as I thought it would be.”

She dropped to a low rumble. “The things I will do to you…” 

Emily chirped loudly, drawing some looks from the people around. It was the exact kind of sound she made when they started making out in front of her at home.

“Soon enough,  _ ma coeur. _ ” Amélie gave her a kiss on the head.

Hana giggled. “Horniness apart, you look awesome, Amélie!”

She made a small curtsy. “Why, thank you, I couldn’t miss the opportunity. I hope I didn’t go too overboard…”

Everybody knew that was an outright lie; Amélie loved to be dramatic, and loved to find people with that same streak, so when they arrived at the castle-like mansion and could see the towers cast in black light and led panels simulating futuristic korean fashion ads, she got goosebumps. That would be a good party. It was almost a shame they had to abscond from it with the host’s wolf.

They got out of the bus in an ample parking area before the main entrance. There, waiting on top of the steps, was an Akande Ogundimu wearing a sharp tailored suit, with his right arm sporting a big mechanical contraption that ended in an armored gauntlet. It had blue light under it, and some parts seemed to move… While Amélie loved how delightfully fashion and extra he looked, Brigitte swooned over the prop. It was amazing. She had to know who made it.

“Welcome to my house, friends.” Akande opened his arms, with a warm smile. “I’ve been waiting weeks for this. Let’s proceed to the celebration!”

\--

There was a white low-poly tower in the middle of the east garden. It glowed from within in muted shifting colors, and a DJ sat atop playing soft vaporwave. Upon seeing the guests arriving, however, he changed the tune to an aggressive, extravagant synthwave track, and the colors on all the multitude of led curtain walls that delimited areas on the party changed from a cloudy blue pattern to purple and red lightning.

“ _ Are you ready to party, Team Meka?!” _

A lot of people cheered, but Lena gasped. That voice was very familiar.

“Is that L-- OH MY GOD IT’S LÚCIO!”

Lena, Brigitte and Hana looked at each other and ran for the tower. Amélie watched them go with an amused smile on her face. “I guess I’d better find us a table, then. How are you holding up, Emily?”

She opened her wings and tilted left and right to the beat, in response. Amélie took it as a sign everything was alright.

“Do you want to go take a look at our friend right now?”

She immediately jumped off the pauldron and took flight, circling Amélie once before ascending into the night sky. It was a good thing most of the party was in the open; no one would bat an eye at her, this way.

\--

They didn’t get to talk to Lúcio right away, because of course, he was working, but he noticed them and waved from the top of the dj tower. He was as surprised with their presence there as they were with his; but they’d all have to wait until he played at least a set so he could sneak out for a few moments. What to do, then? Raid the food table, of course. It was in a different part of the party, away from the dance floor. They saw Amélie sitting on a side table, getting champagne from a waiter when they passed, and she raised the cup to them before taking a sip. She was so elegant, so pretty, Lena couldn’t help but look for a second too long, trip on a chair and almost fall under her gaze. 

She was used to being a fool in front of her, but it always made her blush anyway. 

Something true about Lena, Hana and Brigitte: the cool parties they’ve been at throughout their lives were nice, but still poor-to-lower-middle-class parties. They’d never been to a millionaire’s party, and certainly not one with a free bar service with barmans in holographic tuxedos making colorful drinks on one side, a custom sandwich service on the other (but not the chain junkfood one - those were actually made by chefs, or people with those funny cooking hats, it was all the same for Lena, really) and a whole meal catering service with food so beautifully arranged in the back it could make a grown man cry. Or Brigitte. They could swear her eyes were full of water.

“They have  _ Gubbröra _ !” Brigitte had the tone of a child in the Christmas morning, she briefly looked at Hana to see if she  _ got it _ \- of course she didn’t - and then ran to the back to get her food.

With that cue, all of them went to different places: Hana went in line to get a sandwich and Lena went to get drinks. 

\--

“Hey Amé, we’re back!” Lena put two drinks in front of her: one was orange and blue with a small white umbrella on it, and the other was deep blue to purple with a cherry on top. “This one’s yours.”

Amélie was eating some delicate appetizers. She stopped with one midway to her mouth, put it down and looked at the drink with curiosity. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know” Lena giggled, her smile impish like she was telling a secret. “I asked the barista for a drink for the most beautiful, elegant, ladykiller girl in a black vinyl outfit and she gave me that. She did say what it got in it, but I forgot already, sorry. But look, it changes colors!”

That it did: the top part, full of a blue-tinted ice, was slowly turning purple towards the middle as it melted. It was beautiful. Amélie picked it up with a judgemental look, then took a sip. It was as good as pretty: It had the signature taste of vodka but with something sweeter, like there was some… Tea in it? But also something slightly sour, reminiscent of lemon or orange, she thought.

It was delicious. Amélie looked at Lena, half-lidded, and saw her eager expression. She tried so much to please, the sweetheart… Amélie smiled at it, and plucked the cherry from the cup with her teeth, slowly, keeping eye contact. Lena was getting redder by the second, hypnotized by the display. She gulped as Amélie pulled the cherry in with her tongue and swallowed, everything was suddenly so hot and she was  _ so bothered  _ and--

Amélie started chuckling, leaning on her hand to watch her girlfriend. Lena shook out of the spell feeling utterly outraged.

“Why do you torture me so?!” She squeaked, passing a hand through her hair.

“Because it’s fun, of course. You’re so very adorable.” Amélie pulled her close by the arm and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Haha, very funny.” She gave her an annoyed look but chuckled afterwards.

“Make way, we have  _ lots _ of food!” 

Lena moved in time for Brigitte and Hana to arrive with three plates with impressive stacks of food piled on them. All sorts of food. One plate was exclusively for desserts. It was chaos.

Amélie looked at those and frowned so hard it was almost visible how a couple of years just vanished from her life expectancy. “Did you pick  _ everything _ on the menu? How long haven’t you two eaten?”

Brigitte looked confused. “Uh…”

“Oh love, they’re really going to eat all that.” Lena put a hand on her shoulder and massaged it. 

“Really?”

“Really. You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen.” She paused. Her eyes were distant, reliving things only her memory knew. Then all of a sudden she shook her head and turned back to Amélie. “Where’s Em?”

“Taking a peek around.”

Lena nodded. “Well, I guess now we enjoy the party a bit? Eat, dance, let everyone get drunk…”

“Dance, you say?” Amélie’s smile widened.

\--

When Emily came back, she found Amélie and Lena on the dance floor, and it was an adorable sight. Lena was getting better, but her moves still rivaled an air dancer’s; she was always impeccably on the beat, though, thanks to the sense of timing that came with her powers, and Amélie could work with that. Thus, it was adorable: the wobbling around made Amélie laugh, and Lena had a lot of fun being conducted around. Emily landed on top of the dj tower to watch for a moment. She loved so much when they were this happy…!

“Emily?” She turned - Lúcio was right behind her, messing with his set. “You’re here too?”

She wondered how he “recognized” her so quickly. Maybe it was the cursed aura around her? He could see those things, after all. Besides, what would a robin be doing there, of all places, at night? Yeah… It was actually pretty obvious, in hindsight.

Instead of chirping a confirmation she started moving to the side, wriggling and flapping her wings in a weird dance. Then she twirled, lost her footing and rolled through the set until a big button stopped her on her tracks. Lúcio laughed and picked her up. “I wonder what sort of trouble you’re about to get into.” She put her down on the flat part of the set again.

The fact that this was her reputation even as a bird made Emily grin inside. She was totally okay with it.

“You’re doing good.” Amélie spun Lena and then pulled her closer by the waist.

“I’m definitely not.” She gave her a knowing look. 

“I like it. It’s cute.” Amélie put her arms around Lena’s neck and smiled. Lena smiled back. It was amazing how her heart always skipped a bit when they were this close, even after years.

“Cute? I don’t want to be cute, I want to learn the bloody thing” Lena made a childish grimace. She sounded relaxed, but Amélie knew she took it seriously. “I can’t be this bad having two wonderful dancers as girlfriends!”

“You left classes a year ago.”

“I was ashamed!” She squeaked.

“I know, but you’ll have the best teacher now.” Amélie swiped her off her feet and tilted downwards, getting a surprised yelp in return. “I’m sure Emily will be  _ eager _ to take care of you.”

The way she said that implied she wouldn’t only be taking care of her clumsy problem, and Lena was totally okay with it.

\--

“Hey losers.” 

Hana and Brigitte looked up from their piles of food to see Yuna standing on the other side of the table, looking down at them with a smug smile, completely in her D.mon persona. She was wearing a black catsuit, open enough to hint at her cleavage, and a futuristic circlet that looked like a headset made of acrylic and led lights, in the shape of curly horns.

“Do you want to go check the arcade machines in the back or will you stay here, stuffing your faces in cream cheese?”

Brigitte looked at Hana, then back at Yuna… “I’m good, thanks.”

She crossed her arms. “Your loss. You won’t beat anyone in Dance Dance Revolution with your stomach digesting a week-worth of food.”

“Oh you don’t know Brig.” Hana chuckled. “And stop being an ass! Don’t food-shame us, we’re not to blame for your foodfobial!”

“I don’t think that’s a thing, silly bunny.”

“You want to know what’s a thing, then? Brig sweeping the floor with you in the arcade!”

“Oh?” Yuna opened a devious little smile. “I don’t think so.”

Brigitte stopped with the fork inches from her open mouth. _Crap,_ _Hana was taking the bait._

“Yeah, you’ll see!”

Both Hana and Yuna turned to look at Brigitte.

_ Crap. _

“Uhhh……”

Five minutes later she was on top of the pressure floor on the arcade machine, unstrapping the last parts of her plate armor and throwing an annoyed look at Yuna on the machine by her side. Some people already gathered around to watch the challenge.

“ _One_ _time,_ then I’ll go back to my donuts.” Brigitte gave her gloves to Hana and crossed her arms.

“You’ll need them as a consolation prize.” Yuna laughed, and some people cheered behind.

“Just choose the track.”

That was what Yuna did, with her habitual grin. A quick, energetic song started playing.

“Go on babe, demolish her!” Hana shouted, picking up her phone. That would be an amazing video for her channel. Her fans would love it.

Both Yuna and Brigitte had no trouble following the steps shown on the screen most of the time - Yuna even did a little twirl to mess with the growing crowd gathering around them - but as time progressed the steps became more complex and they had to focus one hundred percent on their task.

“So, enjoying the warm up?” Brigitte asked, eyes dead set on the screen.

“I’m waiting for the real challenge.” Yuna replied.

The crowd cheered once more, some people started making bets out loud.

“Oh you want a challenge?” Brigitte chuckled. “Okay.”

The next song, they went from the normal to the expert difficulty setting. They both held onto the security bars behind them on the machine and started stepping on the arrows on the floor like their feet were hit by lightning - left, right, left, up/right, up/down, down, down, right/up - It was difficult to follow, really, so much Hana would have to slow down the video afterwards to track the movement. Brigitte’s hair was starting to stick to the sweat on her face, and the determination in her frown was just so hot Hana lost track of recording for a moment. That was her girl!

By the end of the song the crowd around them was much bigger, and Brigitte had won by score, like Hana knew she would. She was a beast in  _ Dance Dance Revolution, and  _ defeated her every time. Yuna just didn’t know who she was taking on.

“So, ready to give up? Can I go back to eating?” Brigitte rolled her shoulders, and now it was she who had a smug smile.

“In your dreams!” 

“And how will you make it up to me if I win? Will you finally admit Hana’s the best player?”

Yuna looked mildly offended. “Never!”

“Then you will use her merch on stream for three days straight.” Brigitte crossed her arms. 

“Heh, I’m not losing that.” Yuna popped her neck and rolled her wrists. “If you lose, you’ll have to give me a ride on your shoulders next match in the arena. Everyone will see me riding D.va’s girlfriend to the stage.”

The collective “OOOOOOH” was almost deafening, and Brigitte was immediately so red she wished the earth would open and swallow her. At this time, Hana hopped on the dancing pad and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“For good luck, even though you don’t need it” She winked, then turned to Yuna. “You’re lame, you know that? - there’s no riding my girlfriend without buying dinner first.”

Yuna snorted, half amused, half incredulous. “Well, name the place, then!”

“I’ll send you a message later.” Hana winked again and got off the pad, giving Brigitte yet another kiss on the cheek. She was heavily confused, by the way. Did Hana just land a date for her with Yuna, or was it for herself, of both of them, or--

She shook her head, slapped her cheeks lightly. Better focus on the game.

Yeah.

But really,  _ what was going on?! _

\--

Amélie had done a lot of physiotherapy for her bad foot. The amount of time she could put some stress on it raised drastically, she could spend the day with her dancers, but she still couldn’t dance the night out for obvious reasons. It was more than okay when Lena was her usual cute self and offered to carry her bridal style, even if she was breathing heavily and her hair was sticking to her face in places. Amélie refused it, of course, but Lena still interlaced their arms and made sure she was holding onto her safely so they could go sit down in the lounge area. The couches there looked absurdly comfortable, and Lena was eager to try them.

Emily followed them, of course, and let them know she found the wolf and the other dogs where Sombra said they’d be, at the huge back garden. Lena quickly checked the devices in the internal pocket of her jacket - they were there alright. Good. Now they just had to wait until people got drunk enough to pay too much attention and they’d be good to go on with their plan.

That, of course, took a couple of hours; Lena shed the glowing parts of her costume and stored them safely in the coatroom, then snuck out of the party area with the expertise of someone who had to survive on the streets, with Emily keeping an eye on things from above. They headed to the guardhouse, Emily perched on a tree nearby to keep watch and Lena hid on the nearby bushes. She took a small firecracker out of a concealed pocket, lit it up and threw it past the building. It was a nasty one, Mccree had advised her. Small and loud, perfect to give that inconvenient aunt a heart attack.

Sure enough, the bang was horrible. Lena’s ears rang from the proximity, so she assumed it was worse inside the guardhouse. A moment later a guard came out, tripping on his own feet, with a flashlight and a gun in hand. He ran towards the sound to the back, and Lena saw her opening: she blinked into the room and saw the screens showing the various cameras throughout the property. It wasn’t difficult to find the server recording all of that, but it took a bit more to find the port Sombra described her (about half a minute, with her using her powers; it would’ve been a good seven otherwise). She took a flashcard out and stuck it on the port once she found it, then recalled the hell out of the room before the guard was back. 

From the bushes, her phone beeped with a message:

_ Good work, Colibri, I’m in. Go have fun. _

Great. She immediately texted Amélie a “ _ we’re good”  _ and blinked out of there without a care for being caught in surveillance - Sombra was probably the only one seeing through those cameras at this point.

\--

When they met again, Amélie was already outside the back of the house, holding a tray full of mini  _ beef tourtieres  _ in the dark like a vinyl-bound waitress from hell, and she scared the shit out of Lena when she called out of nowhere.

“Bloody hell, do you want to kill me?!” Lena put a hand on her chest dramatically.

“What did you expect, I’m  _ hiding.”  _ Amélie walked into the light with a raised eyebrow.

“Well-- where did you get these? Better yet, how did you get these  _ here? _ ”

“A little seduction goes a long way,  _ chérie. _ ” She opened a smug smile. “Now give me the tranquilizers.”

Lena handed her a bottle of sleeping pills and they started hiding them inside the meat of the  _ tourtieres _ . As cat owners, they had a lot of very stressful experiences with this type of thing, and had developed an almost surgical medicine-hiding precision.

The garden was divided in two parts: an impeccable one, with perfectly round bushes, flowers and ornamental lamp posts; and one separated by an ornate metal fence, where the garden seemed to give way to the beginning of woodland.

They made their way to the enclosed part quickly, and the only light there was the occasional moonlight.Not ominous at all. It made sense, being a wilder part of the propriety, but Lena was very aware the woods were the place to be if you wanted some bad fairy tale event to happen - and they were just the sort of people fairy tales seemed to target.

“Do you see any of them?” She asked, taking a look through the bars.   
  
“Not at all. Let me throw a couple of these…” Amélie threw two  _ tourtieres _ , and they fell comically near.

Lena giggled. “You’re not great at this.”   
  
Amélie gave her a look. “Try moving well with clothes this tight,  _ chérie, _ and then we’ll talk.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be very free when I unpack you later.” She gave her a smug look. “Or rather, when  _ Emily _ does.”

Amélie's first instinct was to give her a witty reply, but her thoughts were quickly swayed by the image of being touched by a teasing, beautiful, very human ginger she longed for, and the shiver she got out of it made her forget the banter entirely.

“Heh, gotcha.” Lena smiled.

They waited a moment in silence, to see if any dog came, but it looked like they weren’t really around those parts.

“Should we make some noise?” she asked.

“That might catch the attention of people in the house, too.” Amélie replied. “We’ll have to go in. Do you know how to pick locks?”

Lena gave her a very unimpressed look. “Amélie please. I was part of Sombra’s bloody gang - of course I know how to pick locks!”

Fifteen minutes later, she was still trying to open that gate, mumbling insults under her breath.

“This lock is bloody insane, I’ve never-- fucking wanker!”

Amélie would laugh if she wasn’t too worried about them being caught. “We should just climb the fence.”

Lena stopped and turned. “Didn’t you just say it was difficult to move in these clothes?”

“Well do you want me to stay here and do nothing? I can do that too.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Just pass me the food.”

She climbed the fence like it was nothing, as it was probably a means of keeping animals in rather than keeping thieves out. Thieves like them. Oh boy, her conscience...

Still, Lena filled her hands with  _ tourtieres _ and blinked forward, looking for the dogs. She found them all huddled together in a hut made for them where the trees started to get closer together. They were so many, ten at least - she looked at the food in her hands and realized there was a chance it wasn’t enough for all of them, meaning the wolf might not eat if he was slow.  _ Shit. _ Regardless, she left the food there at different points and blinked back to Amélie in record time. When she came back, a few heads had perked up, and it was always funny to see everything moving in slow motion as she was quick as fuck because of her time powers. 

She finished arranging all the food on the floor, and then clapped. “Get up ladies and gentlemen, Lena’s brought you food!”

A dozen curious dog heads started rising (god, there were more than ten!) and she ran the hell away from there, stopping only when she was on the other side of the fence again. Barking followed. Amélie was quite restless.

“Did you do it?”

“Yep! Now we have to hope our guy eats it.”

Amélie didn’t say anything, but she sure hoped they wouldn’t have to go fetch more food to throw to the dogs. “How long till the tranquilizer works?”

“Well...”

Thirty minutes later, Lena went back to take a peek.. Most of them were laying on the grass sleeping, and it took no effort at all to spot the pristine white wolf gleaming in the moonlight like he was a satellite of his own. Problem was, there were three dogs fully awake and alert, and they started barking at her as soon as she stopped there.

“Fuck” She mumbled under her breath, and headed to the fallen wolf.

One of the dogs rushed at her, and she blinked out of the way in a reflex. Then the other came, and she blinked back to the previous spot. Still in her quickened state, she crouched, picked the wolf up - dammit, it was huge and  _ heavy _ ! - and ran.

Amélie heard a screeching noise before Lena appeared back at the gate, and she realized it was her girlfriend’s distressed yelp while she was blinking.

“Amééééé!” she squeaked. “I’m going to throw him over the fence!”

“ _ WHAT?! _ ’ 

Before Amélie could prepare she did it - then she blinked over the fence herself and picked it up on the other side, falling on the grass with the impact. The dogs reached them, but the fence kept them on the other side.

“Lena! Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, ow, sure.” She put the wolf to the side and sat down. “Give me a second.”

“Okay, but we should hide, these barks…”

“I know, I know.” She waved dismissively. “Whew.”

Amélie’s phone buzzed. Sombra sent her a text:

  
  
_ You two are so entertaining to watch - quality comedy, if you ask me.  _ _  
_ _ An uber is on its way to you, about five minutes. Do you want me to kill the lights?” _

Amélie texted back a confirmation. Before long, Sombra replied:

  
  
_ Apagando las luces. _

\--

Emily could usually deal with bird instincts very well, now that she spent way more time with her humans than with the trees. Some primal things, however, were still strong enough to take over her if it came to it; fear was one of them.

She wasn’t expecting her fight or flight response to kick in after the firecracker, but it came full force and the only thing in her mind for a whole minute was  _ FLY, FLY THE FUCK AWAY, YOU FOOL! _ , so that’s exactly what she did.

When she was finally able to think properly again, she was high in the air and away from Akande’s mansion. Shit. She had to go back and watch over Lena - the last thing they needed was everything going wrong because she wasn’t where she was supposed to be…

“Have you finally calmed down? I didn’t think you’d freak out for this long when I amplified the sound of the cracker around you.”

Emily felt lead on her stomach as she froze midair, and the Witch of the Wilds caught her in her hands. She couldn’t deal with her right now - not when they were so, so close…

“Don’t give me this look, Emily.” Angela smiled, half wicked, half amused. “This time it was your dear Higher Muse who told me to fetch you. It’s a special night, you see?”

_ I’m having a special night myself, thanks, let me go! _ Emily thought.

“We’re about to breach Moira’s lab.”

_What?_ _Now?_

Angela chuckled. “Hope I got your attention now.”

They vanished with a flap of her projected golden wings.

\--

Getting to the uber was hell, mostly because Lena and Amélie didn’t have a clue the wolf gleamed at night. Lena had to steal a tablecloth and wrap him on it so they wouldn’t be the brightest thing passing by a party in the middle of a blackout - It was already tricky enough to sneak around it in the dark when people with lanterns were making sure everyone was okay, and emergency lights were turned on in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. When they exited the  _ miraculously _ open employees entrance and saw a car half the size of a regular car in London, it felt like the unnecessary hardship was proposital, maybe a divine test - how many people that car could take? Three? Regardless, Amélie got in the front and Lena on the back, trying her best to conceal their package. Luckily Amélie knew a bit of Italian, and tried to engage in conversation so the driver wouldn’t pay too much attention. The man seemed very eager at staring at her boobs, though, so both Lena and Amélie stayed very much alert in case he tried something.

Thankfully it didn’t happen, and they followed their way to a small cottage Amélie rented through Sombra for the next three days. There, they’d wait for the sun to go up, and then they’d call for Apollo and fulfill their part of the deal. Emily would be human.

Wait. Amélie’s eyes got wide as plates as she realized something.

“Lena, where’s Emily?!” 

Lena got equally startled.

They didn’t know that at that exact moment Emily was a harpy helping search a witch’s lab, hoping to get this over with so she’d finally have a second witch turn her into a human. Emily didn’t know what they were doing at the moment either, but she wished she could’ve told the girls she’d be gone, if nothing else.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Rhitta for beta reading! =D
> 
> Song is "Stay" by Dave Gahan
> 
> See you soon, I hope! Whew, this got long...


	17. Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Come in my cave  
>  and I'll burn your heart away_

Emily made a very specific, very colorful list of insults to throw at Angela when she was eventually turned into the usual harpy form. How dare she take her in the middle of probably the most important night in her near future?! She didn’t believe Angela for a second when she said this was a request from her higher muse; the witch loved to make her miserable. They were so close to getting that wolf out of the mansion and now she had no way to assist or know how things were going - it was torture!

This trail of thought vanished from her mind as soon as they arrived at their destination. She found herself in a clearing at the foot of the mountain, and it clearly wasn’t a natural one - the trees were uprooted, bent and thrown outwards as if something had exploded, and beyond the thrashed trees, piles of stones…? No, not stones - at a second glance, she realized they were the Houses’ gargoyles and something else, maybe… Stone monsters?

Thus, the first thing Emily said when Angela turned her into a harpy was  _ “What the fuck happened here?!” _ , to which she looked at the treeline and crisped her lips, looking way too somber for the witch Emily was used to seeing.

“Mass petrification.” She said humorlessly. “I enchanted the gargoyles to spread it. I surmised it would be the quickest way to deal with the monsters.”

Emily didn’t know what to think of that. It must’ve been terrible to experience, but then again, being shredded by metallic feathers surely couldn't be pleasant, either. Both she and Angela had killed a lot of monsters. If she started getting sentimental about them now, she’d brand herself a killer, which she was, and--

She sighed and turned around, focusing on the mountain. Her attention was drawn to a large crack, and on the far side she could barely see what looked like a darkened room. Moira’s lab, she presumed.

“How did you open it?”

“Oh, with complicated dispelling magic. We sent a few gargoyles in to check, but they activated a trap that unleashed a massive shockwave that blew this whole area up, including parts of the mountain..” She motioned around lazily.

Emily scoffed, then pinched the bridge of her nose and accidentally hit her own face with her wing. Changing forms was so confusing… She tried to recompose herself before talking again.

"Really? With no regard to their lives? Why am I not surprised." She gave Angela a look. "And  _ of course _ you want me to go in now and see if it’s safe.”

Angela raised her eyebrows and smiled as if Emily had just figured out a secret.

Emily groaned. She laughed.

“Not this time, no. That’s what the  _ other _ gargoyles were for, dear. Besides, you know they're not actually alive, right? They're literally animated statues."

Emily didn't know that, in fact. She never stopped to think about gargoyles that much. How could a spell be that good at imitating life? Sure, they didn't really talk and she never saw them doing anything other than brute work and enforcing security, but…

Angela chuckled, noticing her confusion. "I already dispelled the spell. You're welcome."

Right, yeah - the situation at hand. She'd better focus on it. “So why am I here?! I was in the middle of a dog heist, it was important!”

They heard laughter and turned to see Thalia walking in from the woods with Clio and Terpsichore. She carried a spear, and Emily didn't fail to notice it was dripping thick, dark blood. Probably from slaying monsters, right? ”Now that’s a funny joke, little one.”

Emily smirked. “It wasn’t a joke, actually.”

Thalia laughed even more at that. Clio looked concerned. “Why were you stealing a _ dog _ ?”

“Uh… It’s a long story.”

Terpsichore gave her a knowing smile, then looked past her to the hole in the mountain. “I’m sorry I called you here at such a time, Emily.” Angela let out a cheeky hum, having her story confirmed. “But I wanted to ensure we could act quickly in case we uncover any side effects of the magics she used on you, and you would be safer with us should she try to retrieve you. You are one of her successful experiments, after all.”

Emily still wasn’t happy about being taken away, but she had to admit their reasoning made sense. Of course, if they found something to lift her curse, Emily wouldn’t complain either. In fact she’d make Angela follow through on their deal right then and there before sending her back to the party. The mere thought made her giddy with anticipation...

‘Right." She rolled her shoulders. "let's get in there, then."

Angela took the lead and walked into the lab, conjuring a set of floating orbs of light from the tips of her fingers. She mumbled and waved her hands softly in front of her afterwards, sending waves of magic forward like she was skimming through the surface of water.  _ To detect any traps,  _ she clarified. That place was Moira's, and she certainly didn't mess around when it came to protecting her work.

"How do you know so much about her?" Emily asked, walking by Angela's side.

She side-eyed her. "One has to know about their enemies, dear. Especially when they are power-hungry witches who have the gall to claim they're advancing the fields of magic and science."

The way she spat the words made it clear there was a story there, maybe a long-standing animosity. "Oh yeah, she really thought she was the biggest mind the world had ever seen. How did you know each other?"

"She stole from me." Angela's mouth was pressed into a thin, disapproving line, and she said nothing else on that subject, focusing on detecting magic instead. Soon enough she found traces of it, meaning she had work to do - it seemed like she was dispelling enchantments every two steps of the way as they walked from the hall to the corridor. Eventually they arrived at the first door and opened it; the room looked like a storage, with cabinets full of empty bottles, lab equipment, tools and cleaning gear, like brooms and rags. After so many spells neutralized, it was mildly disappointing to find something so mundane... But it was okay, Emily reminded them humorlessly, there were a lot more unknown horrors waiting for them behind the next doors. 

As much as everyone wanted her to be wrong, they knew she was likely right, and no one commented on it.

The next couple of rooms they visited served as storages as well: both full to the ceiling with jars of all sizes and contents, all neatly labeled with Moira's elegant script; they stored powders and dried plants, bones, claws, minerals, tentacles, dried insects, liquids, dissected parts of amphibians and small animals… The deeper they scouted the rooms, the more disturbing the things got: when they arrived at the back of the second room and things seemed to be moving within their jars despite the various stages of dissection, they collectively decided there were other rooms that needed their attention way more than that.

"She never let me see what was in the other rooms, but I remember she took me to a big lab on the third floor." Emily commented.

"We used to discuss business in the administrative building of the houses. I've never ever been here." Thalia had a jovial tone, as always. She held her lance in a loose grip, supported by her shoulder.

"Really? What did she even do for you anyway?" Emily frowned. "Aside from growing bodies for muses, that is."

It was Clio who answered this time, not taking her eyes out of the notebook she'd been writing on since she arrived. "As wide and flexible as our powers may be regarding the arts, there are points where they're lacking. Whenever we needed something beyond our individual capabilities, we employed her services; she strengthened the wards protecting the Houses, for example, took care of threats when the gargoyles weren't enough, created individual solutions when particular muses needed them for work - as you may very well know...

Emily opened a tiny, cheeky smile. Yes, she did know about it. "And what did she get in return?"

"This place" Clio gestured loosely. "the promise of not being disturbed in her pursuits as long as they didn't affect us or defied the laws of the gods, and access to the energy maintaining the Houses, as long as she could craft a conduit of her own."

It was a bit difficult for Emily to deliberately ignore the part where they didn't care if Moira was doing terrible things in her lab, despite her… Strong… opinion on the matter. The last thing she needed was to start a fight with the higher muses. "Wait, so this place should be up and running, is that what you're saying?"

Moira was a snob, she loved to brag about how everything in her lab was cutting edge, be it magic or tech. Emily remembered the rows of machines with integrated spellwork she couldn't even guess the usage, the elevator that was in fact a force field that carried you to the other floors, the way things rearranged at a whim inside the lab where Moira made her a physical form... If all that was powered by energy the Houses provided and the lab was now a lifeless place, then that energy must be going somewhere.

"Yes." Terpsichore nodded. "And I'm not sure I want to know what she's redirecting the energy for, being honest.

That was definitely a shared feeling.

\--

They went up the elevator hole to the next floor by simply flying through it: the higher muses dispersed their forms and bolted up, Angela floated up with her broom and Emily made use of her wings. That wasn't the hard part; the hard part was, again, getting through layers and layers of protective barriers and trap spells, only to find a series of completely trashed rooms with a chimera nesting in the last one. Angela quickly closed the room and sealed the door with a spell, cursing loudly; that was just like Moira, letting a monster loose on her lab to destroy evidence and hopefully eat anyone dumb enough to enter. Good thing she wasn't just anyone.

The third floor had, quite ironically, only three doors in it. When Angela gave them the okay to walk around, Emily went straight to the one on the right out of muscular memory, and decided against opening it alone at the last second. It was best to wait for the others, right? It was only logical. In no way she was hesitant about what she could find...

"That's the one where she always met me." She informed them. "should I…?".

"Oh, that will be good." Angela let out a low chuckle and motioned for the door to open, so it did, on its own.

For good or bad, the lab was exactly as she remembered: high tech, intimidating and carved out of the very rock of the mountain. The machines and workbenches were pristine, and even the files and books on the vast bookshelves to the left looked untouched.

There was a drawing right in the middle of the lab, row upon row of script written on the floor in a myriad of circles that were either concentric or intersecting the main, bigger one. It undoubtedly was a powerful spell, and Angela kept everyone at bay when she saw it. But then Emily’s stomach dropped - she knew those circles. 

"That-- why is the transmutation spell still here?" Everyone looked at her, confused, and she pointed at the magic circles on the floor. "She used it to give me a body. Did she do it to anyone else after me these years?"

"No" Thalia opened a big, cheeky smile. "you made enough of a mess to scare  _ some of us _ from this sort of solution." Her tone made it clear she wasn't in that group. Clio sighed.

"Melpomene was unbearable those months."

Angela casually walked up to the circles, leaving the muses to their family commentary. She waved a hand over them like she did to detect magic so many times before, and delicate strands of magic floated in the air; nothing else happened. "Well, it's inert. Whatever magic it had is long gone, now… Why would that methodic bitch leave this staining her polished floor for as long as two years?" She put a hand on her chin.

Emily walked up to the circle as well, but stood a couple of steps behind Angela. "Maybe she didn't want to forget it?"

Angela scoffed, but her scorn wasn't directed at Emily. "She fancies herself a scientist. The first thing she would've done would be documenting her spellwork." She nodded towards the bookshelves.

"Then maybe it was special somehow? Maybe she couldn't erase it?"

"I found something here!" Clio announced.

Of course, the next moment everyone was clustered around the muse of History, looking at an empty whiteboard. 

"Congrats sister, you found a perfectly common whiteboard." Thalia chuckled.

"That's not it." Clio gave her a side look. "There's something about it… it's important. It concerns multiple people present.”

Angela raised an eyebrow. She had a perfectly good poker face, but it was obvious she didn't understand that remark. That brought a petty satisfaction to Emily, if she was honest - it was a muse thing, not for her. 

At last, Angela spoke. "I can check it for magic, but turning back time is her girlfriend's area, not mine." She pointed at Emily with her head.

"That won't be necessary." Clio ran a hand slowly through the whiteboard, absorbed with something far away. "Important objects have memory."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As if in unspoken agreement, everyone went very quiet, watching. 

Memory. Lena had spoken of it, as well - how certain places could trigger feelings and memories from a different time if whatever happened was strong or happened long enough. They've once passed a church and she started crying out of nowhere, saying she could feel the pain of too many people suffering there in the war…

Emily wondered if Clio's powers could access these memories the same way, or if she could know more because she was a proper goddess. Maybe it made her reach more impersonal facts? Important ones?

"There are equations. A replica of the spellwork on the floor. A brief description of an event:  _ 'Energy peaked at 8:34pm. The visual aspect of it changed from the usual pattern to swirling golden light, unmistakable. I must find out what she did to the subject.'  _ Then, below: ' _ If she's trying to find a way to get to me, this whole room might be compromised.' " _

Clio took a deep breath. " _ Subject's essence does not respond to the original spell anymore. It doesn't seem to be tethered to this plane--" _

"STOP!"

Everyone turned to look at Angela, rightfully startled, but Clio; she let go of her breath and refocused on the present moment before doing so.

"Can't you feel the air around you?" Angela said, serious. "Magic's getting agitated. Maybe… oh damn." She looked up, and the far ceiling was covered in runes and spells that were slowly lighting up in a deep purple color. "Do  _ not _ use magic in this room anymore. We need to leave.  _ Now." _

It was easy enough to usher everyone outside and close the door. Only then she explained hastily that the thing in the ceiling was probably a trap triggered by unfamiliar magic; it sucked it in and then returned horrific death once it was charged.

Unfortunately, the other two labs on that floor had the same magic script on their ceilings, and all they could do was search manually before the runes started glowing and Angela rushed them out, complaining that apparently goddesses were so magical in and of themselves that their mere presence could set off the trap. 

They didn't find anything remotely important in those places, and they all agreed the things in the whiteboard were odd but were also written way before this whole mess started. That was the end of the building, but it didn't answer their questions in the slightest: where was Moira getting an endless supply of monsters from, and why did she send them to assault the houses?

"There's no way this is all of it." Angela practically spat the words. "If I know that bitch, this is just the socially acceptable front she puts up to deal with people asking questions. Her real work is twisted and evil. It’s not easily containable in these neat laboratories."

So much resentment, so poorly hidden. What had happened between the Witch of the Wilds and the former Eyrine? Nothing good, if Angela knew the supposedly twisted and evil part of Moira's work. Had she been affected by it or was she part of it? Emily exchanged a quick glance with Terpsichore, and it looked like they were thinking the same things.

"What do you suggest we do, then? Look for hidden passages?" Terpsichore sounded a bit skeptical.

"There's no need. What's the most well-guarded place we found here?"

"Uhh… Chimera room?" Thalia tried.

Angela opened a smile. "Chimera room."

\--

"Why can't you just turn it to stone like you did with all the monsters outside?" Emily was less than thrilled at the prospect of being turned into a giant stymphalian bird again. 

"First, because it wasn't me, I enchanted the gargoyles to do it, and second, they could do it because they were already made of stone, which you were not, last time I checked."

She grunted something, unhappy. 

"Cheer up, you killed dragons! This must be nothing in comparison."

Emily gave her a very mean look. "Yeah, because greek dragons are like, acid-spitting snakes with wings the size of a cow, not a fucking legendarily vicious fire-breathing lion with a goat head and snake tail." She sighed. "I'd just be happy not killing anything, you know?! But whatever, I'll do it, let's get this over with."

Angela raised an eyebrow, amused. "I believe in you, dear." She waved a hand and the seal she put in that door dissipated. It opened and immediately a huge goat of flame shot outwards, forcing everyone to stick to the side. When it subsided, Angela snapped her fingers - and once more Emily was a metallic bird that was way too big for that corridor.

She sighed, gave Angela a look and squeezed herself into the room. Angela closed the door.

They heard the sounds of fighting and roaring for around fifteen minutes before everything went quiet. When Angela opened the door again, the bird was huddled in a corner, and the body of the chimera lay headless and spasming in the middle of the room.

Angela returned Emily to her harpy form before taking care of her wounds, which proved to be a mistake when her skin was no longer as thick and metallic, and everything hurt at least three times more.

In the meantime, the other muses busied themselves by looking around the now even more trashed room. It had been a mess before, but the blood, scorch marks and metallic feathers certainly didn’t help matters. It looked like it might’ve been an office at some point, a set of destroyed bookshelves and a smoldering desk were visible among the carnage.

"What are we looking for?" Thalia asked, throwing half of a seared book over her shoulder.

“Anything that stands out. We have no idea what we’re looking for yet.” Angela replied while focusing all her attention on healing Emily, and as such did not notice Teprichore’s gaze upon her.

Clio closed her eyes, focusing on the room. Was there anything inconsistent with its timeline? Something in it far older or far newer? Her senses told her the blood and feathers were extremely recent, which she knew already. After it, some office supplies - paper, pencils, pens, clips. Some of the books on the shelves were a century old, the ruined rug definitely two. Nothing really caught her attention as odd, but an interesting piece of information reached her mind in regards to the construction of the place: there was to be a corridor where now was a marble inlay separating shelves, put there to be behind the main chair and frame the person sitting there. "There should be a corridor where the marble inlay is. I wonder if it was actually built?"

Angela immediately turned her attention to it but Terpsichore simply laid a hand on her shoulder and said. "Finish healing her." Her tone made it clear she would not hear any excuses.

Emily looked at her Higher muse with a pained, vulnerable, quite thankful expression and she nodded in return.

"You two are adorable." Thalia smiled. "Hey Angela, do you think you could zombify the chimera to protect us?"

"I don't zombify anything."

"No? Wasn't that what you did to those mad scientist's experiments?

"Not at all." She sounded unfazed.

"Wait, that's true? You  _ made _ Junkenstein's zomnics?" Emily whispered, trying not to exert herself too much. It hurt.

"They weren't zomnics, they were omnic prototypes, and shut up so I can work faster."

Despite all the questions she had, she obliged and kept quiet like the good girl she rarely was. It took a good ten minutes for Angela's magic to heal her completely, even though it still felt like a sunburn depending on if she moved too much. It was annoying, but at least it would fade if she gave it half an hour or so.

"So now tell me, did you  _ really  _ make the omnics?"

Angela promptly ignored her, and went to the marble inlay. Angela put a hand on it, felt for magic, made a series of motions and just entered the piece of thick stone like it was made of nothing. The others quickly followed.

Traditionally, evil lairs were high above or high below everything. This one didn't disappoint with its unending spiral stairs lit by magic purple fire. The temperature lowered considerably as they descended, the air became thick with accumulated energy, so much not only the hairs on the back of their necks stood up, but some loose strands of proper hair as well. They were definitely going to the right place.

This didn't mean Emily gave up on her questioning, until Angela gave her a lump in her throat that made her cough furiously every time she tried to say anything.

When their almost endless journey down came to an end, they saw themselves before an intricate archway carved out of a black stone very out of place against the granite of the mountain. There wasn't a door, but all they could see through the opening was deep darkness.

"Oh I know this one." Angela chuckled, stepping ahead of the group and right before the archway. She raised her left hand and twisted it in a sharp motion, and in response tendrils of dark energy extended out of her fingers and into the carvings on the black stone. They spread and filled it, and only then did the darkness inside the archway dissipate, revealing the place on the other side.

It looked like a gothic cathedral enveloped in darkness, and the only light came from a set of three tanks in the middle, arranged in a way to circle a comfortably-looking living room that every one of them overlooked. The contents of the tanks were far too distracting... Not to say horrifying.

The first held a dismembered person, separated with clinical precision into limbs, torso and head. Half of the body was skinned to show the muscles, and somehow the whole nervous system had been extracted and laid in display by the body, along with the organs. If this wasn't disturbing enough, there was a soft movement to them, a slow rise and fall of the diaphragm that denounced breathing… And the eyes, two spheres with blue irises, were fixed in the group. Through what could only be described as terrible means, that dissected person was somehow still alive.

The second tank also had a person, but this one was curled into a ball, floating in the glowing tank. They had a skinny male build and were dressed in rags so ruined they couldn't be described as more than strips of cloth barely held together. They covered nothing of their lean body and the gruesome changes it was undergoing: the skin was peeling off on large areas, giving place to tufts of dirty brown fur; The bones on the person's arms were elongated in an unnatural way, so much that the muscles were pulled taut, ready to snap - the hands that held onto the person's head were big and clawed, just like the canine-looking feet. They were looking at a werewolf mid-change, undoubtedly, but one somehow frozen - and in a lot of pain.

The third tank was the oddest of them all. It held a big ball of tangled tentacles on it, protuberant and slimy, endlessly converging on themselves. Whenever one of the group tried to figure it out, something surfaced on it: dozens of unnaturally yellow eyes, a morel's mouth full of sharp teeth, a string of organs that looked like extremely unhealthy intestines… No one was able to look at it for more than a fleeting moment. It was too incomprehensible, too disgusting.

Emily held back the urge to throw up, very real despite them being made of light and not having digestive systems. She then tried to talk, but the lump in her throat was still there making her cough. Angela waved her hand to dispel it so she could talk properly. “What the hell are those things?”

"Trophies." Angela said simply, looking at the dissected person. "What a twisted, terrible existence."

She put a hand on the glass and sighed. Her palm glowed, as did all of the dissected person inside the tank - then she took her hand out, closing it softly. When she opened it again, there was a small golden orb hovering over her palm. She gently raised her hand and the orb floated up in the air like a bubble, warm and shiny… Then it dissipated. 

The movement in the caged diaphragm immediately stopped.

"That's it. Rest." Angela whispered, closing her eyes for a second. Her heart was broadcasting pain to the muses around, enough to make all of them look at each other. Was that compassion for the people trapped there? "And the werewolf…"

Angela did the same thing with her hand for the werewolf, but no difference could be perceived in their tank. She didn't mess with the third tank, though. That was clearly beyond the scope of anyone there, and it was better to leave it alone.

The living room was lavish and extremely tasteful. The couches were arranged in a way you had to look directly at the tanks one way or another - Moira likely enjoyed admiring her trophies… Or liked intimidating her guests, if she even had any.

They didn't find anything useful in that place, so they moved on, their steps echoing in the empty space. All they could see were columns and more columns fading into the dark, and the back wall dimly lit in front of them, still some good steps away.

"This place is so big, it must be a nightmare to clean." Thalia was looking around. 

"Matches Moira's ego." Clio shrugged. "It's been terrible to cleanse from these parts."

Thalia's laughter echoed in weird ways. "I knew you had it in you, sis!"

The back wall had a semi-circular recession on it, where there stood five doors. They were made of beautiful dark wood and had no identification on them. Upon inspection, Angela declared they were magic in nature, but not trapped in any way. 

Terpsichore gingerly opened the first one and discovered a small room made of dark grey rock, except for a single wall to the left that was made entirely of glass. Beyond it, darkness.

Emily took a step back. "That place looks wrong. And feels wrong." 

"Oh, and you had this sensation only now?" Angela opened a venomous smile and sent three orbs of light inside the room. They floated peacefully towards the glass wall, and before they could even halt, something emerged from the dark and put a massive hand on the glass. It had five claws the size of Angela's thigh, scrapping to try and reach the light inside the room. Thankfully, they seemed to slide against the glass ineffectively, but that didn't mean they didn't scare the hell out of everyone looking.

The hand wasn't the only thing that appeared, though. In just a moment they could also see snouts and mouths, smaller paws, tentacles, hands, an infinity of fur and teeth and claws coming and going.. 

"That's… I guess we found the source of all those monsters." Despite everything, Angela was excited, which was twisted but understandable - If Emily was a witch she'd probably be into channeling hoards of monsters from the dark as well, she guessed. Or not. Why no witch ever summoned good stuff like a wine fountain or a pack of uni-ponies?

Wait, were uni-ponies a thing…?

Anyway. Angela extinguished the light orbs and entered the room, going straight to the glass. The beasts on the other side didn't show any sign of interest in her, in fact it was as if they couldn't even see her standing there. 

"It seems the room is cloaked." Angela said, matter-of-factly. "Come in, there's something you should see."

Everyone was understandably cautious descending the few steps into the room, and more so before the glass wall. Only when they stood in front of it the reason why Angela called was made obvious - some distance below a big glowing purple circumference was seen, lighting its surroundings softly and revealing monsters of all kinds, reasonable or not, scrapping and colliding with the stone inside it, moving out and giving space to others to try again and again…

"What are they doing...?" Terpsichore frowned. "Is that a magic circle?"

Angela nodded. "Teleportation. The monsters are trying to get into the circle because they've seen it happen before, I bet."

Her tone wasn't a "bet" tone, but the "I got you" one, mildly surprised but also cocky.

"And how do we dispel it?" Clio was writing on her notepad more furious than ever now.

"We turn off whatever is strong enough to keep it powered in a place like this." She pointed to the darkness.

It could only be the machine harnessing the energy the Houses gave Moira. They had to keep looking for it.

Thus, they went for the second door in the void cathedral. It housed a long, narrow hall with tanks similar to those of the living room lining the walls, and they held a multitude of humanoid creatures: a siren, a kappa, a couple of lamias, a banshee, some faeries, a gnome… Emily couldn't help but freeze at the sight of a harpy. The one in the tank had brown feathers, an empty stare and a mouth fallen into an "o" shape, exposing sharp teeth. Is this what she looked like? Was that what Moira would do to her, if she found her interesting enough?

"All of these are from so many different cultures - we should notify Zeus. That could cause so much trouble…" Clio mumbled, and for the first time, Thalia nodded instead of making a joke of the situation.

Terpsichore put a hand on Emily's shoulder and brought her back to the moment. "I'm asking Angela to lift your curse as soon as we leave here."

It could've been the little smile or the comprehensive tone, even the implication that Angela actually knew and could do it as soon as possible, but those words really helped lift the weight on Emily's chest. They just had to go through with their search in Moira's wretched lab. It couldn't be that long, now…

Could it?

The next door opened to a platform above an hexagonal pit. Below, a huge crystal was pierced by four metal poles attached to thick cables that disappeared into the walls. The incisions caused deep cracks in the crystal, and they oozed a sticky, dark substance that occasionally produced tendrils that flailed about lazily and receded back to the puddles of ooze.

"Moira did make a point of having her lair be as creepy as possible, didn't she?" Thalia grunted in disgust, crossing her arms.

Angela snickered. "That she did."

"I'm assuming that’s the thing she's using to harness the power." Clio started working on a sketch of the crystal right away. "Looks like a power crystal grown to ridiculous size. Does anyone see a switch or a control panel?"

They looked around, but there was nothing on the platform they could use, nor magical or technological.

"Maybe we could ask?" Thalia tilted her head.

_ Who's… there…? _

A booming, rough, infinitely tired voice echoed through the pit.

"Uh…" Thalia was the first to take a step back. She didn't think anything would want to engage in conversation, actually.

_ What do you… Require… of me? Haven't you taken… Enough…? _

Angela made a sign for them to be quiet, then to back out to the door.

_ I can feel you there… I have waited... _

The pit shook as something moved down below. Electricity flew in arcs from the poles attached to the crystal, and a loud grunt echoed on the walls.

Thalia exited the chamber, then Emily and Terpsichore. Clio and Angela were some steps ahead, still. They needed more time.

"We're not Moira." Angela said, hesitant.

There was a pause, long enough for Clio to get out and Angela to be one step from exiting when the voice came back again.

_ ...Can you… free me? _

She stopped. She knew she shouldn't - it could be a ruse to trap intruders there, it could be stalling for an attack, there were so many bad possibilities - but the idea of leaving a sentient, living creature to suffer the fate Moira imposed, it made Angela's whole being shake with anger. She couldn't accept it... And so, with hateful steps, she headed further inside again.

"I will do my best."

\--

The crystal was alive. Below the main gem laid a small body made of dark rock and smaller crystals, held firmly on the ground by the sticky dark substance oozing from it. The emerging tendrils rooted themselves to the ground or lashed out towards Angela whenever she tried to hover near the creature on her broom, so she retreated to a safe distance, cast a barrier to shield her from occasional jolts of electricity from the poles and started with the questions. The creature was an elemental of the deep, born in underground caves where geodes the size of whole cities expanded throughout millenia. It was taken, and the crystal on its back was forced to grow by unnatural forces the witch planted in its body. Now it was essentially a gigantic tumor channeling energy for the witch; The elemental wanted to get rid of it.

"How are you planning to do that?" Emily asked back on the platforms, when Angela said she would try to fulfill that request.

She smiled. "The medical way, of course."

Through the next hour she put the elemental under a powerful sleep spell, enough to act as an anaesthetic. Ideally she would've liked to cut the energy supply before she made an extraction surgery to make sure, you know, she wasn't fried by electricity in the middle of it, but every time she tried to destroy the cables attached to the poles, powerful magic nullified her attempts. The poles were a different problem - they were stuck deep inside the crystal, so much Angela could barely lift them without causing more cracks in the thing. She wanted to sever it from the elemental's body, not cause it to break; who knew what would happen if the energy within it was unleashed? So, without a lot of options, Angela committed to the task of healing the elemental and its sick crystal.

First she reinforced the wards and the barrier around her to resist against the tendrils, then she landed and started to work. Healing that crystal was proving to be a challenge, as it felt like something deep inside it was fighting against Angela’s energy. It required a lot of concentration - so she set both hands upon the elemental, took a deep breath, closed her eyes and felt her power flowing from her to it, washing over all the wrongness, soothing the pain and violence, healing the damage wrought by the infection. It felt like melting wax with the flame from a candle, bit by bit. 

The muses watched from the platform up high on occasion, and when the golden light Angela was emanating became so bright it was visible from their height, all of them perched on the safety railing to take a better look at what was going on.

Unfortunately, they were also the first to spot how much more of the dark substance was being expelled from the cracks in the crystal, way more liquid this time, making a big pool on the floor with the writhing tendril-like versions of it that held the elemental. They seemed to be drawn towards Angela and only held back because of her barrier - and apparently she wasn't noticing it.

"Angela, look around you!" Thalia shouted. She didn't react. "LOOK. AROUND!"

It was no use. Even when all of them shouted together, Angela didn't hear them; not because they were too far apart but because her own power was lowering the senses she wasn't using for her task to compensate. She had carved a good part of the figurative wall, now. Her power was acting as support beams inside the crystal as it slowly regenerated the healthy crystal material it should be filled with in the first place. 

"That's going to get her at this rate." Emily bit her lip. She was the only one who could actually fly there. She should go and warn Angela - but what if she got hurt because of it? That looked pretty bad. She didn't want to be drowned in goo, or whatever grim fate that thing could give a person, especially for someone who'd been using her all this time. Still...

She took a deep breath. Lena wouldn't even stop to consider the danger, she would just go and help, the sweet, brave fool. Amélie would find a more clever way to communicate without getting too close, but Emily wasn't that bright.

Well, if something happened to Angela she wouldn't be turned into a woman anytime soon, right? That just wouldn't do.

"Shit." She rolled her eyes and took a dive into the pit, hovering at a safe distance from the substance. Then she found inside her to let out a famously hideous harpy screen. It worked, and Angela opened her eyes to look up at her, but it also broke her concentration.

The healing stream was interrupted for one moment, and it was all it took for all the cracks in the crystal to reopen and deepen, the dark substance to pour out even more and stick to Angela's barrier, sapping its energy, and for Emily to decide it was time to take her out of there.

"Angela I'm going to pick you up!" She shouted before diving downwards at full speed. Angela went back to healing the crystal to get more time, but it was getting harder by the second with how much pressure was building inside. It felt like a bubble ready to burst--

Emily grabbed her by the shoulders with her sharp talons. Angela was yanked shouting as she was pierced and held tight, the pain and surprise caused her concentration to slip further, causing her barrier to shatter. They flew upwards with dark tendrils licking at Angela’s feet until they felt the air thrum with electricity. The poles were overloading from the surplus energy, shooting electricity everywhere. Angela barely managed to raise a shield before a thunderbolt hit them.

"What's happening?!” Emily shouted over the noise.

"The whole place is collapsing-- get us out!" Angela roared above the pain and effort.

Emily beat her wings as hard as she could to gain height, but despite her best efforts they were barely moving. Looking down she realized the tendrils had latched on to the bottom of Angela’s barrier and were rapidly spreading across its surface.   
  
“Fuck!” Emily shouted as she felt herself starting to panic as the tendrils started pulling them downwards, the tendrils couldn’t reach them but they were now effectively caged by their own spell.

"Fuck!" She repeated. "Angela what do we do?!"

"I don't--"

"It's too strong!"

"I know--"

"It's going to get us!"

"SHUT UP!" Angela grabbed her ankle with one hand. "I'm phasing us out!"

There were too many adverse conditions for them to jump back to the mortal plane, and Angela knew that. She couldn't see another way, not a quick one, and time was of essence; still, the very first difficulty was concentrating enough to pick a place in the mortal plane and connect mentally with it.

She managed to do it, despite everything. 

"Angela…!" Emily was still fighting with the tendrils to stay airborne, but their hold on the barrier was too strong; like a bird in a cage, she wouldn’t be able to get out no matter how she tried.

Angela tried to ignore their predicament, focusing all her power and concentration on transporting them out of there, but holding the barrier up in the middle of that chaos was taking too much out of her. Then she felt something far below her that demanded her attention: the dreadful, parasitic life those tendrils and the dark fluid they came from shared receded for a moment, like a person holding their breath… Or a bomb about to blow.

She made a desperate gamble there: she brought the barrier down and concentrated her whole power on phasing them out of that plane.

The crystal below them exploded.

\--

After what felt like a whole century, the sun was finally rising over the Italian horizon. Amélie and Lena couldn't sleep that night, despite arriving safely at their destination with Apollo's wolf. The three girlfriends had agreed beforehand to go on with their quest if the others had to stay behind for any reason, and that's exactly what Lena and Amélie were going to do, but they also couldn't help worrying. Where was Emily? What could the Witch possibly want with her right now, of all times? 

They hoped turning her back into a woman would release her from the Witch's grasp, but…

"Look, Lena." Amélie nudged her gently and pointed to the small window. "It's time."

They didn't know if it was time, actually; all they knew was that Apollo was keeping an eye on them, so calling when the sun was in the sky should be enough to draw his attention. Lena got to her feet in a hurry, almost tripping on her own feet and then tilting a bit to her side, holding onto the couch for stability. She was so tired… But she would only sleep when she had her ginger lady spooning her, thank you very much.

Amélie was a bit more in control of herself, but costly, sluggishly. She didn't get up, for fear her foot would betray her; instead she started mentalizing a prayer to Apollo, making it extra praiseful just in case.

_ O Apollo, magnanimous god of the Sun, _

_ We have waited the whole night for the dawn to come so we could see your glorious light again. We bring you the promised wolf to humbly request your promised aid. Would you accept our offer? Would you soothe the souls of two afflicted lovers for their cursed third? _

As the sun kept rising in the sky, big and orange, rays of light illuminated Amélie's face right as she finished her thoughts.

Lena stood in front of the door to the bedroom and put an ear to the wood, trying to hear the sounds on the other side. The wolf should be awake by now. She wanted to be sure it was ok to try and take a peak before opening the door and having an eye gouged out in a surprise attack, for example.

She wasn't expecting the door to open, though. She recalled out of pure reflex and that was the only thing that saved her from falling face first into the floor.

"What the--!"

"Oh, that's an interesting trick, isn't it dear?" A man with a soft tone said, chuckling. "Good morning to you"

Before her was a man freshly out of his teenage years, with curly blond hair that framed his face, and a warm, perfect smile. He was petting the wolf idly, and the wolf, in turn, was looking at Lena curiously. He was black now, the moon on his forehead white. It was good to see he was doing okay, after all, but of course Lena only spared him a glance; she was in the room with a guy that could only be Apollo, and she really didn't know what she should do next.

"...H-hey." She tried.

"Hello there." He chuckled. "Can I come in?"

"Uh, right! Right. Of course, please step into… How long have you been locked in that bedroom?"

"I just arrived. You, though, look like you've been here for a lifetime." He tilted his head. "Rough night?"

"God, you bet." She sighed.

“Let me fix that with some fresh morning energy.” He rubbed his hands together until his palms were glowing from the inside, then put them on Lena’s shoulder. It felt like a generator was shaking her violently for a second, and when it stopped, she was full of energy. “There. Feeling better?”

“I feel amazing!” She grinned.

"You're still going to have to sleep a lot tonight to make up for it." He pat her shoulder and looked past Lena, to Amélie getting up in a hurry to join them. "You're very good at flattering a god's ego, miss Guillard. And you brought Atlas!

He gestured towards the wolf by his side, but when they all looked he was no longer there; intead, it was back in the bedroom, on top of the bed, looking intently at the one window.

"Atlas?" Apollo tried, curious. "What are you--"

The window in the bedroom slammed open with no warning, and wolves started pouring inside: one, two, four - six wolves with jet black fur like Atlas', who saw Apollo there and immediately jumped and pinned him on the floor, baring their teeth.

"Apollo, you fancy idiot!"

A woman jumped into the bedroom with the grace of a gazelle, landed gracefully and walked up to the pinned god on the floor. She had the same face as him, only contorted in anger, and longer hair tied in a high ponytail. There was a soft silver glow over her, visible where the shadow touched her body. She had to be Artemis, goddess of the moon, fierce huntress and Apollo's twin - and apparently she was mad with her brother.

"Who told you to come after Atlas in his home and make these women take him away?!" She continued. Upon seeing her, Atlas stood on his back paws and pawed at her with the front ones until she acknowledged him "oh hello boy! I missed you too! You're looking very good, spoiled…"

"What do you mean?" Apollo squealed. "I was going to return your lost wolf!"

Artemis actually stopped and blinked for a moment, processing his words. Then she scoffed. "Atlas's  _ not _ lost, you idiot! He's retired, and I chose that man to take care of him because he loves his animals!"

"Wait, really?!"

"Yes, really! Atlas' been with me for so long, he worked very hard and has earned his rest! I take care of my companions." As if to prove the point, Atlas was licking her hand a lot, whining and wagging his tail a lot in excitement. It was adorable.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" Apollo tried to argue.

Artemis rolled her eyes and sat on the bed, patting a spot beside her. "Here, loves. No eating my dumb brother today."

The wolves (including Atlas) immediately got off Apollo and onto the bed, laying around the goddess. Apollo sat down on the floor and straightened his jacket with an undignified grunt. Artemis watched with a pleased little smile.

"You won't appease me by going around and trying to bring all the animals I've sent to good places back to me, Apollo. I'm still very mad at you"

"Clearly." He got up and rolled his shoulders. "But this was an honest mistake!"

"I know. It's way too dumb." She chuckled. "Which reminds me…"

She turned and looked straight at Lena and Amélie, both watching their exchange at a complete loss on how to react. It was very amusing to see how Lena tried to straight up as much as possible upon her gaze.

"You promised these kind women something, didn't you?"

"Yeah? Well now it's all for nothing!" He threw his arms in the air. Artemis gave him a reproving look and he sighed, shaking his head. "But yes, yes I did."

"So go on and give them their reward, they did their part of the deal already!"

"Yeah, yeah, I was going to do that before you assaulted me!" He looked at his shirt, covered in dog drool, and made a disgusted face.

"Poor you, so helpless."

He ignored her and passed a hand in front of the shirt. In a second it was clean again, and he directed his attention to Lena and Amélie. "I'm sorry for this pitiful scene, I'm ready to work on your robin girlfriend now. Where is she?"

They looked at each other, apprehensive.

"We don't know." Amélie said, almost apologizing.

Apollo tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"In the hurry to bring the wolf here - Atlas, was it? - we got separated. We believe the Witch of the Wilds may have come to take her to the spirit realm to do something for the muses."

The curiosity in his eyes only deepened with each of Amélie's world. Eventually his brow furrowed and a smile made its way to his face. "Your girlfriend is not only cursed, but involved with a witch and still doing work for the muses?" He giggled. "I can't wait to see the kind of person she is. Don't worry, I'll find her."

Apollo leaned on the door frame, partially blocking their view of the bedroom, and closed his eyes. Artemis observed, petting her wolves. Amélie grabbed Lena's hand, and they both held tight to each other. It was happening. They had two actual gods at the cabin. It was happening.

Suddenly, Apollo's relaxed expression grew tense, then confused.

"I… can't find her." He opened his eyes and didn't know where to focus his gaze. He was shaken.

"What?" Artemis got up, genuinely alarmed.

" I can see all the sun touches, both here, in Olympus, in the spirit realm - and I can't find her!"

" _ What?!" _

  
  


\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Rhitta, for making this at leat 3x more coherent and fancy <3


	18. Volta (Return)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Atravessei, vou queimar / I broke through, I will burn  
>  no céu desmanchar, / crumble in the sky,  
> dissipar no pó / dissipate to dust  
> E verei o que vai sobrar / and see what will remain_

Everything was darkness. Then, it wasn't.

Existing was too heavy, and keeping her eyes open demanded a strength she didn't have. Sight came and went, blurred. There were words from someone she knew, she was sure she did, but focusing enough to make sense of them was impossible.

_ "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I will keep you with me. You won't be lost. It'll all be here when you return.  _ _ I'm sorry… You deserve so much better than to live in service..." _

There was so much sadness, she didn't want that. The darkness was inviting… She let herself drift away, and forget. There was no pain in the dark.

\--

"But you're a god!" Lena said for the third time. She wasn't listening anymore, not really; the only information spinning round and round in her head was that Apollo wasn't able to locate Emily. How could a god not be able to find her?!

"Again, there are a load of places she could be and I wouldn't find her." Apollo was surprisingly understanding of Lena's spiraling, a consequence of his reign over medicine and also plague; he knew despair and sorrow up close. "Planes where there's no sun. Pocket dimensions. Even deep underground caves where those nasty, blind worms reside; they've never seen the sun, and I can't see them either. You can't assume something bad happened just because she's out of my sight."

"What am I supposed to assume, then? What sort of good things lead people to places where there's no sun?!"

Lena was led back to the couch in an attempt to calm her down, but she gesticulated frantically, like she was physically unable to hold still. Amélie, by her side, was the complete opposite: she was arched forward, with hands interlaced and resting on her lap, and she was completely still.

"Adventure. Quests. Curiosity. People have braved deep caves for the thrill of discovery, or trying to find a way home." Apollo gave her a smile as warm as the morning sunlight. "Maybe your Emily is on a quest with this Witch of the Wilds you spoke of, and it's only a matter of time until she returns."

"She wouldn't have gone willingly." Amélie whispered for the first time in the conversation. "She wasn't dragged to this because she wanted. She thought..." Her voice faltered. "The Witch just came and grabbed her whenever the muses needed."

"So the muses must know what happened." Artemis raised her head with renewed focus, and locked her gaze on her brother. "And if Apollo wants to get on my good side again, he'll find out for you."

His eyes sparkled, but he frowned. She nodded. He was very surprised.

"Give me a couple of hours, I'll be back." He didn't lose time vanishing in a flash of blinding light.

Artemis sighed, getting up from the armchair near the fireplace. "I should be going as well. I have to return Atlas to his home before Akande notices his absence, and there's still work to be done." She put a lock of hair behind her ear and looked at the two lovers on that couch. They were so lost. She was very sorry their day started like this. "You need to rest, lady Guillard. I can ask Hypnos to put you to sleep."

Amélie looked up at her and felt nothing. Consciously, she knew she was way too tired, probably near her limit, but she wasn't sleepy anymore. Suddenly, trivial things like her basic needs didn't matter all that much... It was like she was empty.

Lena noticed. She'd seen this before, when Amélie had depressive meltdowns. She put a hand over hers and looked deep into her eyes. "You really ought to, love. Apollo amped me up; lemme wait for him."

Amélie wanted to argue it would be cruel to leave Lena alone to deal with her crippling anxiety, but in fact she didn't know how much help she'd be in her own state of mind. It was awful, but she ended up agreeing. Lena managed a faltering smile, and then hugged her. It was clear how she was barely keeping herself from falling apart. She was so brave...

She didn't say it would be okay, though. She didn't know how much she believed it in the first place.

\--

Everything was darkness. Then, she was underwater.

For a glorious second she was a harpy suspended in the muffled void, seeing disconnected colors like stars blurred by the running water. She wanted to reach for them, figure out what they really were. They looked near, but also so far...

That was all she could register before everything started to burn.

It was like fire was running through her veins, cooking her flesh inside out, boiling her skin. She tried to scream, but water filled her mouth and nose and while - strangely - it didn't make her choke, it also didn't let her breathe, and it was terrible; she flailed around helplessly and hurting, until she was yanked down by something and the pain started going away. She could see a miasma coming out of her charred body and dissipating into the waters. It would've been a relief, hadn't she felt like a thousand hands were clawing and dragging her to the deep. Everytime she tried to fight, they held harder; everytime, they took something from her.

She knew who she was. She remembered her name, her girls, everything she lived and loved and that brought her to that moment. Still, when those invisible hands scratched and prickled at the edge of her being they tore little pieces apart, and she found herself forgetting - the tastes and sensations from the mortal world, the energy signature from other muses, music lessons, songs, places…

She panicked and flailed about wildly, but now she was a giant metallic bird trying to cut, rip open, dice, slice, tear apart, eviscerate an enemy that didn't have a body for her to do so; she couldn't fight water. It filled her lungs, her mind, and she realized too late it was tearing away at her memories... 

That was a battle she lost as it started.

She was a little bird struggling to move her wings like a newborn, except she never ever came out of an egg or was really a bird, for that matter. Yet if you asked her, she wouldn't be so sure; things were jumbled in her head. The faces were blank, the places, erased, the songs were silent and the steps? Forgotten. Every little thing that made her herself was drifting away, and yet she tried, with her fading strength, to hold on to what mattered most: her name was Emily. She had two girlfriends she loved. She had to go back to them.

Then she was a ginger woman with eyes of ever-changing colors, but also all the faces she wore before that one. The hands of the river had an iron grip on her, they were everywhere, and she knew she could no longer fight them. 

When Emily drowned in the waters of the river, there was only darkness and a delicate set of words in her mind:

" _ They are waiting for me…" _

She couldn't waste away like that.

Suddenly the oppressive water gave way to a gust of wind, and Emily opened her eyes to herself free-falling towards white light - a distant star? - with Amélie and Lena there, somehow holding onto her. She didn't pay attention to the strangeness of the situation or the fact somehow she went from drowning in a river to falling in something that felt like air - what really mattered was that she knew those women. She knew their faces and names, her love for them, and even though she didn't remember falling in Lena's room out of nowhere, or watching Amélie's dance routines for years, their mere presence filled her with relief and warmth.

It felt like home.

They held onto her like they could shield her from everything, and somehow it made them stop falling, like their sheer willpower was keeping them in place. It was insane, something Emily didn't think possible… but their arms were like a fortress, Emily wanted to hide forever in their embrace. Whatever they did was welcome.

Welcome, but deep down it felt… Off. She realized holding her there seemed to be taking everything out of her girlfriends, to the point of almost hurting them - because she was supposed to go, she knew. They shouldn't be taking the brunt of that force drawing her towards it. She couldn't ask that of them.

She also couldn't let go. There was this terrible feeling they'd be erased forever and she'd never be able to find her way back from wherever she was really going. They were part of who she became, they were the last thing she had - how could she go on without them?

"Em." Lena whispered in her ear, and it was as sweet as a lullaby. "You should take the leap. You deserve so much better…"

It struck like lightning; Emily immediately realized those words were both new and old to her, like a dream you only half remember for the longest of times until something triggers the whole memory again.

She remembered Lena telling her these exact words two years before, in the Timestream, while she still was some sort of time avatar aligned with that place - and along with it, juxtaposed in the right parts, were Terpsichore's words as she let the river take her, words she didn't even remember hearing in the first place: " _ you deserve so much better than to live in service…" _

A muted sob came out of Emily's lips, a pained smile - Lena was right, of course. She hid her face on the curve of Amélie's neck and cried, and her lovers understood, of course. They held her, and it only made her cry harder. She deserved so much better than everything that happened to her so far, but they were the good thing she got out of it, and she didn't want to lose them.

But it was not about them, was it? It was about her. It was about how dumb it was that everyone had rights over her but herself - The gods, her Higher muse, even the humans when she was a muse, Moira when she turned her into a bird, Angela when she turned her in everything she saw fit… She did deserve better than this. That was what Amélie and Lena would also want for her.

"I refuse to forget you." Emily whispered, and lifted her head slowly to look at them.

Wordless, they knew her decision. Lena kissed her on the cheek, and Amélie on the forehead. They held her tight for a last moment, and so they let her go.

Emily didn't look back at them as she fell, she didn't want them to see her cry. Instead she closed her eyes and let the wind take her down like a diving bird, and everything felt so simple for a moment, instinctual even. It was just a leap. She'd just have to make through it… And even though the light stripped away the last of her facets and the oldest of memories that formed her, in the end something could never be erased: A spark of life, and it knew its name.

\-- 

Terpsichore had not left the margin of the river. She sat and gazed upon its waters, and their surface reflected her like a mirror of darkness.

She didn't want to let the river claim Emily, but she wouldn't burden anyone but herself with the task. Emily was one of her muses, one of her  _ children _ , and it was because of her she was in this mess. If there was something to be done to save her, even something as crazy as this… She had to try it; she couldn't just let her expire like that. But what if Emily didn't return?

"I know you don't want to leave that spot, Terpsi, but that won't bring her back any faster." A feminine, gentle voice came from behind her.

Terpsichore didn't look back. "It's the least I can do for her.”

"Oh, but is it to help her or to punish yourself?" She could hear the woman's smirk in her tone. "There's nothing you can do here, Terpsi. It's not your fault. You didn't set that explosion."

"I asked her to be there. I let the Witch use her as a weapon all this time, and for what? In hopes that someone else would undo something I not only let happen, but declared as a sentence myself. I was terrible to her." She hugged her legs, eyes dead set on the water. 

The woman hummed, and a moment later she sat by Terpsichore's side. She had curly black hair that reached below shoulder length, and almond eyes that looked soft, but also very astute. "And when did you have a choice on all of this, friend?"

Terpsichore finally looked at her. "There's always a choice."

The woman laughed, and it stung right in the chest. Terpsichore's nostrils flared, her eyes widened, there was a mix of outrage and surprise she almost couldn't keep at bay. What was the meaning of that?!"

"Not when the options are compliance or punishment, no."

Terpsichore knew that _ , of course _ she did. There were too many reminders of her situation in her daily life for her to forget the mess she was in. Passivity was something that killed her, and yet, she had to endure it time and time again...

She looked away. "Please let me guard her sleep, Perse." Her tone made it clear she meant alone. Things were difficult enough without stinging truths delivered to her face.

Persephone nodded, of course. She got up, stretched lazily and shook the dust from her black vinyl pants. "You'll be able to tell her everything when she returns, at least. Let her be the judge of your worth, if it matters this much."

"How can you be so sure she will return…?"

If Terpsichore looked, she'd have seen the compassionate expression in Persephone's face. "People like her are stubborn."

With that ominous quote, she left her alone with her thoughts.

\--

**Lena**

_ What do you mean, Emily's missing?! _

_ 10:22am _

_ Apollo couldn't find her. He's out there looking right now, and I'm waiting for his word. _

_ 10:22am _

_ That's terrible Lena, do you want us to go meet you? =X _

_ 10:23am _

_ No. Go have fun, that's your reward trip after all _

_ 10:23am _

_ Really, I have no problem going, I'm sure Brig doesn't either… _

_ 10:24am _

_ Don't. We'll take care of it. _

_ 10:31am _

_ Aw man you're even using punctuation, that's serious =X okay, but keep us informed, right? She's our friend too" _

_ 19:32am _

_ I Will. Have fun =) _

_ 19:32am _

  
  


"Wow." Hana laid back, leaning on Brigitte's legs. They were both sitting awkwardly on the hotel bed, recovering from a light hangover from the party. "I hope they find Em soon."

"Hm? What happened?" Brigitte leaned towards her, interested.

"You know the thing Lena and Amé were getting the wolf for? The one where they would make Emily human again? Well, turns out a literal god couldn't find her anywhere, and now Lena's waiting for news and freaking out anxious because what the fuck could've happened? That's all so strange."

"Strange and awful! We should go offer them some support--"

"Yeah, I asked if she wanted us there, but she doesn't. I guess it would only make her more anxious to see people now."

Brigitte nodded and bit her lip. "A god, you said? That must be pretty important. Do you think they are in danger?"

"I don't know, their life is pretty much jrpg material at this point - and speaking of which" Hana gave her a playful look. "You and Yuna, huh?!"

It took Brigitte a whole moment to realize what Hana was talking about, then she hid her face under a pillow.. "I don't want to talk about that!"

"Why not? It was a nice kiss. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who saw it, there were no recordings--"

"We were all drunk!" She squealed like a cornered animal. "That's not-- what if she doesn't remember it?"

"We weren't all that drunk to forget things, you know. It's fine, relax…"

"How can you be so chill about it? I kissed her in front of you!"

"And I set it up, it was nice." She chuckled, then she turned and placed her hands on Brigitte's knees, putting her head on top of them to look at her with those big, concerned eyes. "It's okay with me, Brig. We've talked about this before, right? I mean, letting things open. You told me it was fine. Did it change? It's okay if it did."

"It's just…I don't know!" She threw her hands in the air out of frustration. "I don't mind when you do it but it felt so weird to go and kiss someone else, like I was cheating on you!"

Hana got a bit more serious, thoughtful even. "Do you think that would change if we did it together?"

"Like Lena, Amélie, and Emily?"

"Maybe not something that serious, but I don't know, just have a good time, the three of us?"

"I don't know, really." She shook her head, then sighed. 

"It's okay, we don't need to do anything you're uncomfortable with." Hana looked straight at her while she talked, to show she was serious about it. "I love you. It's absolutely fine to be just the two of us, and if you feel like trying anything, we can always talk about it - but in your own time, if you ever want it. Okay?"

She nodded. "But I don't want to limit you…"

"Limit me? Pfft!" She chuckled, her playful expression coming back in a second. "I'm not Lena, you know? I never had three flings at the same time and got in trouble because they found out."

"She did that?!" Brigitte gasped.

"Yeah! To be fair, she never told any of them it was more than a casual thing. I can't believe she never told you this story, I couldn't even breathe from laughter the first time I heard it!

She shrugged. "I guess I'll have to ask her once things are alright again."

"Do it, you won't regret it!" She chuckled, then she found Brigitte's gaze and her expression softened again. "Hey. I'm sorry I pushed you to kiss Yuna, okay? It won't happen again unless you want it.

"Thanks. It wasn't bad, it just… I don't know. " She shook her head. "Maybe some other day, with no alcohol involved."

"You got it."

"Now can you come here? I want to squeeze you in my arms!"

Hana couldn't be happier to comply.

\--

If anything could take Lena's mind off of things, it was heavy exercise. She'd been doing push-ups in the living room with a discipline she didn't have since her RAF days, and the amount of effort it required made sure the only things in her head were the strain in her arms, the effort to keep her body in a straight line and keeping her breathing steady.

She'd thought about going out the cabin and just running until she couldn't feel her legs anymore, but despite being her favorite exercise, there were some problems with that option: she didn't want to leave Amélie alone, for one, and who would say she wouldn't just keep running and lose her way back? It was too much like her to get lost in the Italian countryside and make Amélie worry, so she didn't want to risk it in the first place.

A quick flash of sunlight caught her eyes and made her look up, thinking something metallic might have moved outside. What she saw was Apollo in front of the fireplace raising an eyebrow at her, and she hurried up and sat down, feeling her heart doing somersaults in her chest. Finally! She didn't even care that she looked like something ran over her; She wanted to know the news.

"What did you find? Where's Em? Why didn't she-- she's not with you."

Apollo had to refrain from biting his lip when he saw how the beaming excitement vanished from Lena's face, replaced by pain and worry. She immediately held her arms, and it was getting more difficult by the second for him to just get on with it and tell her - it wasn't  _ that  _ bad _.  _ It wasn't what she wanted, as well...

"No, but she's alive!" He rushed to say, raising his hands in an appeasing gesture. "And she'll come back!... Eventually."

Eventually wasn't a good word to hear in this situation. It could be tomorrow, a month from now or maybe forever… "What happened to her?"

He put a hand on the back of his neck and rolled his shoulders. "An explosion. It's a miracle she's not dead - Terpsichore said a witch's magic shielded her, but she was still at death's door in the end. The nature of her wounds made it so the only viable way to save her was to take her to a place where everything could be washed away, but she had to be submerged in a river and they don't know how long it will take for her to recover."

Oh god, she was really hurt, almost dead, even. Lena couldn't deal with that from afar. She needed to see with her own eyes, make sure everything was being done, assess the situation. She had to  _ move. _ "Where is that?! How do we get there?!"

He hesitated visibly. His eyes darted around. "Er…"

" _ Where?!" _

"The Underworld. The Lethe river."

Apollo delivered the location quietly, like he was expecting a tragedy. It hit Lena like a punch to the guts: he lost the little amount of color she managed to keep in her face until that moment, she couldn't breathe… The Underworld. The place where dead people went, where they rolled rocks up hills forever and the rivers were made of fire.

She felt like fainting.

"Oh my god she's going to die, isn't she…?" It was almost a whisper, and she locked eyes with Apollo like her own life depended on it.

“No, spirits don’t die.” He was gentle with his words. Clearly he had to explain things like this before. “Mortals die and go to the afterlife in order to remain or reincarnate. Spirits simply exist - when they are "killed", they dissipate back into the force that made them, there's no relation whatsoever to the underworld."

"S-so why there?! Wasn't there anywhere else she could go?!"

"I don't have this answer." He sounded apologetic. "All I know is that she's there now, and she will recover." 

"Can you take us there?"

Apollo clearly wasn't expecting that. His eyes went wide as plates, he waited for a moment to see if he heard it right, and when Lena didn't budge, he coughed and composed himself again. "No, and this is a bad, bad idea. I have no authority in the realms of Hades, and he doesn't let living mortals go in."

"So I have to convince him, got it--"

"You don't understand--" He cut her, suddenly worried. "You wouldn't be able to eat there, or you'd be bound to the place. There's no sun. It would suck the life out of you--

"No,  _ you _ don't understand!" There was a desperate fury in Lena's eyes. "She went beyond the world to bring me back, how could I not go fetch her in the Underworld?! How can I leave her alone like that?!"

"Terpsichore is with her. She didn't--"

"Terpsichore let her fight and get hurt! Every-fucking-one of her people let her down. We gotta -  _ I gotta _ do something, Apollo! I can't just leave her there!"

She wiped the tears from her face angrily and stared at him. It wasn't accusatory, but pained; she was completely lost, and the anger was the only thing keeping her from a breakdown.

"Please, there must be something you can do…"

Apollo put a hand on her shoulder, and it felt like midday sunlight where he touched. "She's not going to die, Lena."

"How can you be so sure…?"

"I…" He hesitated, then let his shoulders relax like he lost an internal battle. "I'm the god of prophecy. I just have to look."

That didn't have the effect he expected on Lena: she didn't jump at the prospect of knowing the future like mortals liked so much to do. She just gave him a weird appraising look, somehow older than she actually were.

"But the future's not set in stone. It's endless possibilities…" The question, of course, was implicit.  _ How could he predict the future if it could change like that? _

It was a great question, and it made Apollo smile. "That's precisely why the only prophecies that get famous are the right ones, but see - all of them are rooted in the most possible outcome for the situation at hand."

Most possible wasn't good enough. It could be 51% against 49%, or 82% against 18%; and as someone who was especially good at defying odds, Lena knew well how the difference could impact the outcome. She needed more than a prophecy, she needed an exact number, and Apollo couldn't tell her that. 

Khronos could. But he wouldn't… they've had similar conversations before. At this point, she doubted he would even receive her in the Timestream, knowing her intent.

That was when she noticed how still everything around her was. She looked at Apollo, then at her hands, and concentrated. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes she could see faintly how she was freezing time in a surprisingly big range, and her first thought was that she'd get into trouble if she didn't release that unconscious hold, but wait - wasn't catching Khronos attention what she wanted at the moment?

"Lena?" Apollo asked tentatively, curious about her sudden shift in attention.

She raised a hand to ask for silence and looked around the room for the point where it was the most difficult to hold time in place. It turned out to be near the fireplace - too many people had meaningful memories there, the flux was strong. 

One useful thing that came with the skill to mend rifts in time was the knowledge of how to open them as well. Lena grabbed the string where time was the most tense and ran her hand through it like the bow of a violin, then held her breath. When she snapped it, she could almost hear the cacophony of other strings that followed - and the displacement in time was enough for her to blink into the Timestream on her own.

She fell in the raging flux of time, endless and turbulent, and it crashed against her violently, trying to throw her to the deep of its tides. It was a different experience than when Khronos called her, closer but still not quite what she went through when she was first thrown there to drown after her pact with the Witch of the Wilds. Now, Lena was struggling but still had a relative control, managing to keep herself from being pulled into random memories as she was thrown around.

"Khronos!" She shouted. "Khronos where are you?! I need to talk to you!"

As quickly as she called all the tempest stopped - and she fell face first onto concrete, groaning as she turned to lay on her back.

She found herself looking at the familiar ceiling of a hangar, and hurried to sit down. She was in a memory set at RAF Bloomsbury, it seemed. Her eyes scanned around absorbing the view until she laid them on Khronos wearing flight gear, standing by a jet Lena would recognize even if it didn't have her name and callsign painted on it.

"What's the meaning of this?!" His fury was contained, he sounded more outraged than anything. It didn't mean his stare wasn't dangerous, but Lena was too hectic with her own anxiety to register it at this point.

"Khronos I'm so happy you came" she scrambled to her feet and approached, tripping and almost falling in the process. Her head spun and ached, a consequence of her accident; she barely gave it a thought. "Would you tell me something? I-- _ Please… _ In our timeline… Can you tell me how likely it is that Emily will be okay? _ Please…?" _

He looked at her for a second that felt like a century, his eyes going from cold fury to surprise as he watched her kneel in front of him to beg for mercy. "I do not tell the future. You know this."

"I do. I just want the probability, nothing else. Please, I… I just need to know…"

Silence. She could barely keep the tears at bay as she waited for an answer. It was a pitiful scene, and Khronos noticed he had no joy being part of it, even though those things usually amused him; she was too depressing to look at.

"I don't think I can do anything to change it anyway" Lena continued, probably to soothe her own nerves. "I just… I've waited so long, Khronos. Even if she was a bird, I… I can't lose her like that."

If there was a thing Khronos knew, it was a torturous long wait. He was locked in his realm for millennia after all, so much he didn't even want to go out anymore. There was nothing for him outside, only bitterness and old resentment...

"You're not gonna lose her, stupid girl." He rolled his eyes, gave her a look and crossed his arms. "The probability is laughable - now go back to your cabin and mend the damage you did."

"Thank you!" Lena practically pounced on him, giving him no window to react as she wrapped him in a tight, heartfelt - and teary - hug. "Thank you so much, boss!"

He stood speechless for a moment, until he recomposed his cranky ways. "Yes, be thankful; you're of no use to me in a downward spiral. Now go before I decide to smite you for not doing your job!"

Lena immediately let go of him, her smile off the charts, and nodded. "Will she come soon, though?"

He readily sent her like a bullet to the point she tore open earlier, without answering. Right… she better not push her luck too much too soon. She started the reverse work of mending the tear she opened with her mind in the future - She couldn't wait to tell Amélie, and Apollo if he was still around. 

\--

Lena reappeared in the living room already calling for Apollo, but she stopped as soon as she noticed how still he stood, and his glazed eyes; whatever was happening, he was definitely not there in the moment. 

She didn't know if that used to happen, but he'd probably be okay, right? He was a god, after all. It was not like he was about to drop dead on the floor… 

As soon as she sat on the couch he started talking, using a raspy voice that sounded nothing like his. It made Lena jump back up, startled.

_ "There will be flowers with the falling leaves _

_ Swept by the wind and the coming rain _

_ A day of work when one should be free _

_ She'll come home to release the pain" _

Apollo came back to his senses like he resurfaced from deep water, he coughed and blinked disoriented for a second before setting his eyes on Lena. "That… Was for you, I believe."

She nodded slowly, wide-eyed. "That's amazing, thanks! ...And bloody weird."

"Oh really? Oh of course, miss Jump-into-a-time-rift!" He put both his hands on his waist and gave her a look. 

"Did I scare you? Sorry, I didn't mean to--"

"Of course not" He waved her off a little too eagerly. "but don't go opening holes to  _ that guy's _ realm, you know? It's very unsettling. I don't even know how you can stand it…"

"Oh you mean Khronos?" She said bluntly, without an ounce of malice. "He's not that bad! He's creepy, of course, but he's been alone too long…"

"You do realize you're talking about the guy who ate all his children, right?"

"I guess so?" She frowned. "But how could he eat them and at the same time keep them whole in his belly? And Em told me Zeus ate someone's mother too, when she was in the form of a fly or something, but she lived in his brain? and there's Aphrodite, who was born from a giant severed dick that fell in the ocean... Point is, I dunno how literal those things are. Were you there? Honest question, I'm trying to understand."

"Of course not, I'm Zeus' son, not brother." Apollo passed a hand through his curls, a bit exasperated. "But Khronos literally wanted to kill everybody. He wasn't a nice guy."

"Oh yeah, I'm not trying to defend him about that, but see, weren't all of you guys pretty murderous back then? There's a lot of killing in the stories." She quickly realized what she said and rushed to make amends "but here I am talking to you and you're super nice now! I dunno, Khronos didn't try to kill me since I started working for him, and I even hugged him, so I call that a win, I guess." She shrugged. 

Apollo clearly was having trouble picking his next words. "You are a very strange woman, Lena Oxton."

"I know." She giggled.

"Well, I guess I should be going. Here" He produced a beautiful golden feather from his coat and extended it to her. "this is for when your girlfriend is back and you want to use the favor you acquired. It'll work only once, so be responsible." She nodded. He opened a small smile. "Good luck. Ah, before I forget - I did look at the art you made in my honor. It was very nice."

Before she could ask further - especially as to why he didn't contact her at the time - he vanished in a flash of blinding light.

\--

"Amé. Hey love, wake up." Lena shook Amélie softly, as it was usually enough to wake her up. It didn't work this time. "C'mon, I got news! It'll make you feel better!"

Amélie moved a bit and grunt in her sleep.Lena smiled. Damn, only Amélie could be this beautiful like this, with hair askew and falling on her face, half grimacing as she slept.

Lena shook her again, and this time she put a hand over Lena's to make her stop before she opened her eyes and set them intently on her. 

"Hi love." Lena said simply. "Did you sleep well?"

"Weirdly so. I had a lot of strange dreams." Amélie took some hair out of her face.

"Really? Tell me about them over breakfast, yeah? I got news." She opened a big smile. "Em's in a river in the underworld, so we'll have to wait, but she's coming back."

Amélie seemed to wake up further at the mention of their third. "When?"

"Uh… they don't know. But look-- Apollo just had a vision and was talking all weird and said she'd return when there were flowers with the falling leaves, so I guess sometime in Fall? It's not that far! Although I don't know about this flower thing…"

Fall was just around the corner, about a month from starting. If Lena's prediction was true, then they'd have Emily back by Christmas - hell, maybe even by Lena's birthday! Amélie couldn't hide her smile at the prospect of that - it would be so good…

"You're going to tell me everything that happened while I was out bit by bit" Amélie booped Lena's nose once for every 'bit' she said "but first you must lay here with me and actually rest."

Lena could argue she was still feeling quite good from Apollo's blessing earlier, but she would never refuse to lay by her girl's side and it was true, going to the Timestream and back always tired her a bit.

"Okay." She chuckled. "But that might take a while."

\--

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Rhitta for saving my skin with this yet again <3


	19. You're not Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Your voice recedes and  
>  Your fingers slip from my hand  
> White skies and silence  
> A lifeless wind burns through the Downland_

Fareeha noticed a weird smell on the wind. Now, being a wolf, there were lots of strange smells around, but all of them belonged in the first. This was different: it was foul and acidic like a chemical spill, and something else... Blood? She sniffed the air and confirmed it, it was definitely human blood. She sat back on her haunches, swiveling her head around to try to pinpoint the source. Normally she would've called Reinhardt - she did so for anything weird she found in the forest - but he had to make a quick trip back to Germany to take care of business; She was alone to deal with whatever this was.

Fortunately, Fareeha didn't become a coward when she ended up stuck as a wolf. She got to her feet, ran towards the smell, and her senses led her to the margins of a stream.

There was a sticky substance splattered on the ground and on the surface of the water, and it was corroding ground and plant matter alike. There was also a person semi-submerged on the stream, charred, hurt by the substance and tinting the water red with their blood.

_Shit. Shit shit shit shit!_

Fareeha acted on impulse more than reason that moment. She jumped to the other side of the stream and ran closer, entering the water only enough to grab the person by their destroyed coat and drag them out.

She took them to a clean edge of the trees and had a hard time turning them to a reasonable position. She could access the damage better with the person laying on their side, and their face; The woman in front of her was Angela Ziegler, the Witch of the Wilds; her mother had warned her about her true nature right after Emily was taken away years before, and sometimes they both kept an eye on her. Not enough, apparently; because now she was bleeding unconscious in a random forest, but that could be excused by the damn lycanthrophy messing up both the Amari’s lives.

_That's… Oh shit, I have to call mother!_

From the part of the forest she was in to the werewolf mansion she'd take about half an hour running. Given that Ana couldn't run as much as a wolf and she wasn't able to carry her on her back, as big as she was in that form, that would make it at least an hour and a half away from the unconscious woman, time enough for something bad to happen. Fareeha didn't want to leave her alone this long.

She nudged the Witch with her muzzle, shook her with her paws, she even contemplated licking her face like a _dog_ , but gave up on the idea because some of that foul substance might be lingering there as well. Nothing got a reaction out of her

Fareeha remembered what Reinhardt tried to teach her a couple of times since they started living in the forest: subtle differences in howling so wolves and werewolves far away could communicate. He showed her how to ask for help. She was rebelling and didn't listen at those times. If she could go back now…

She still tried, despite her lack of ability, training and knowledge. Her howl sounded weird and pitiful, like she was being strangled by a turkey, and she really felt the need to dig a hole and hide for the next month until everyone forgot about it.

She couldn't linger on that, though. Desperate, she started licking the Witch's face, and her tongue burned a bit. _C'mon, wake up… I don't know what to do!_

Suddenly she felt a light touch on her front leg, and the weirdest sick feeling hit her: a dizziness mixed with drowsiness and a weakness that made her stumble on her feet.

"Help…" The Witch whispered, barely opening her eyes, holding a bit tighter to Fareeha's leg.

 _How?_ Fareeha tried to say, but all that came out was a whine.

Oh, but she'd learn soon enough. Her leg started cramping and her strength faded quicker, vanishing towards the point where the Witch grabbed her. She was doing something to her, something vampiric, but--

A pair of golden wings flickered into view on the Witch's back, but their light was dull and fading. 

Once again the witch tightened her grasp; Fareeha's sight obscured for a moment, and the world spun as she could no longer sustain her strength. She fell to the ground, and everything flashed gold and hurt her eyes.

Something tugged at the back of her stomach, quite like at the start of a fall on a rollercoaster, the difference being it lasted only for a second. In the next, she felt herself fall on water and start sinking, until she was pushed by something - probably the Witch, but she was too weak to even think - to the margins, where the water was shallow and she wouldn't drown.

Fareeha didn't know how long she stood completely inert on that spot, but eventually the sick feeling got better, and she was so exhausted she drifted softly into sleep.

\--

She woke up feeling tired and soggy. Looking around, she immediately noticed a couple of things: one, she was in a large cave with a natural spring inside, and a wide crack in the ceiling let light filter through; and two, the Witch was in the middle of said spring, submerged up to her neck and cocooned by her golden wings, wings that were somehow reacting to the water around her and making it glisten like a thousand luminous algae were floating in its surface. She looked deep in slumber, but not a peaceful one.

Fareeha didn't know what to make of that whole scene. She certainly wasn't imprisoned there, there was a clear way out of the cave, even though it looked like it didn't connect to the outside. She could try exploring a bit, see where it led. Maybe she wasn't all that far from her forest.

One careful look at the Witch showed her she was still very hurt, though. Fareeha didn't like the idea of leaving her there alone, even if there was some magical thing going on. What could she actually do to help, though? If she found her way back to the mansion and got her mother, that would probably be more useful than anything Fareeha could do as a wolf.

One way or another, she could start by taking a quick walk around, gathering more information. She got to her feet slowly, feeling her body protest after so long in one position, and took some tentative steps to check her reflexes. They all felt a bit slower, but otherwise okay. Good.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this, little friend. I needed the energy, but I healed you. You're free to go."

The Witch's voice was stronger than the thin whisper from before, and infinitely softer than Fareeha ever heard it. From the limited interactions they had, both before and after she knew her occult dealings, she'd never heard it this sweet. Maybe… Did the Witch not notice she wasn't a common wolf?

She wanted to glance back at her in the pool, but she was afraid she'd realize her nature if she did. Fareeha walked as fast as she could out of that cave and into a passage that quickly got much narrower, something that looked like two natural stone walls collapsed onto each other centuries before and left a path checkered by sunlight, tricky to navigate and possibly unreachable to something as big as a human. It ended in a small, unassuming grotto covered in wall plants and bushes that concealed the entrance, but more importantly, was somewhat familiar to Fareeha - she was pretty sure she had seen that place with Reinhardt, meaning she was still in her forest.

She tried to concentrate on the smells, like he taught her. It shouldn't be too difficult to find her way back to their camp, and from there, to the mansion. She really had to find her mom.

\--

Being in that spring felt weirdly like stasis to Angela. Her whole body was numb, and the corruption was a tingling all over her wounds, where it would've been a burning hell otherwise. There, in those waters with her healing magic amplified, she could purge that thing from her. She didn't know how long it would take, but it was a miracle she was alive in the first place; she could wait.

All of her senses were dull because of the magic. She didn't hear the gentle sound of the forest outside, and she definitely didn't hear a black wolf walking in again, bringing someone with it.

She only heard when the woman called her, loud and clear.

"Now that's something I wasn't expecting. Can you hear me, Angela?"

She opened her eyes slowly, and it took a second for them to focus on the two figures looking at her from the margins. Her eyes fell on that black wolf by Ana's side, the same one she had burrowed energy from. "So you're not a common wolf." 

The wolf whined and pawed at the floor. Ana raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to you?"

"Is your age finally catching up with your sight? I'm hurt." Angela closed her eyes again and sighed. Even those trivial tasks, like talking and looking, were taking a toll on her. She had to conserve energy.

"Clearly" Ana gave her an appraising look. "But I won't be able to help if you don't tell me what sort of trouble you walked into, you know?" She shrugged. "It's your choice."

"Why would you help me?" She opened her eyes again only to stare daggers at Ana.

"Because you're hurt and I can. Unlike you, I don't like seeing people die in front of me if I can do something about it. Besides, it's so much fun to see how pissed you are with it."

Angela sighed and closed her eyes again, shaking her head ever so slightly. "A crystal elemental was being used as an energy conductor, and some sort of draining corruption was spread through it. It exploded and did this." She pointed down with her chin. "I didn't have enough time to understand what it is, but this spring will help heal me. It only needs a small amount of power to amplify it."

Ana took some steps toward her. "Still, if that's true and you're not already cured, then it's more serious than I anticipated." 

Angela chuckled, humorless, but that was cut short by pain. "I was half dead, and that's because I got out in time. The…" she pursed her lips, tilting her head down. _The ginger is probably dead,_ she wanted to say, but it wasn't a good thing to do. Not now, where she was so vulnerable… and Ana could easily tell Amélie everything.

"Okay... I will need materials for this. Do you think your condition will be stable enough for me to go fetch my kit from the mansion and come back?"

"I'm going to heal slowly, that's why I'm here." The slight dismissal in her voice could be for Ana or for her own wounds, there was no way of knowing. 

"Won't people miss you back at home?" Ana raised an eyebrow, and she didn't even want to hide her amused little smile. "Do you want me to--"

"I have a spell in place for such an occasion" she was quick to cut, a bit irked. 

"You're a doctor. They're going to notice one way or another."

"They're going to think I took an urgent vacation to take care of family matters back in Switzerland. I have everything in place."

Ana thought it was very impressive she had such a system ready like that, but also quite sad. She was a lie; nobody could know who she really was, she was dead set on not letting the people she cared about know her real nature. She knew she wasn't a good person, and still she craved their affection enough to do that, instead of embracing it. Angela was always complicated.

"Very well." she said finally, waving her hand dismissively. "Fareeha, stay and take care of her. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"As if I needed a guard mutt."

Fareeha whined in protest. Angela readily ignored it.

"Your choice, then." Ana shrugged, and gave her back. Fareeha went with her.

Soon the cave was silent, and Angela opened her eyes to confirm she was, indeed, alone. Good. Peace and quiet worked wonders for healing.

\--

It was so frustrating to be in that position, not knowing what exactly was hurting her, not being able to do anything to know it better because of her state, and being forced to wait as the spring worked its magic. Angela had lived for centuries now, she was an expert on the arts of healing, she should be able to deal with this sort of thing more efficiently!

Her rational mind quickly reminded her that this was Moira's work she was talking about; that wretched bitch would never stop developing new, improved ways to make people suffer. She couldn't expect to be updated on this sort of thing.

Angela sighed. At least she wasn't bleeding on the water anymore, and she was still numb. And alone. That was all she needed at the moment.

She opened her eyes slowly, to test if a little more stimuli would increase the pain level like before. Instead, what she saw was a big black wolf laying down on the margins of the spring, with her paws under her head and not really looking at anything. Didn't she go with her mother?

"Why are you here?" Angela whispered, sure she'd hear anyway.

Fareeha was clearly surprised, and her eyes took a brief moment to locate and focus on Angela. She must've been deep in thought. She also couldn't talk, so she let out a short cry that sounded a lot like pleading.

"Why did you call your mother? I didn't need her." Angela rolled her eyes. Fareeha was very skeptical when she tilted her head. "She will never let me hear the end of this."

Fareeha thought it was funny how Angela talked like she had sprained an ankle or broken a valued vase, not like she was half-dead - in her own words - and tainted with some unknown malady. One would think those were very different levels of needing help. 

"You're going to be bored if you stay." Angela said before closing her eyes again. 

Fareeha didn't move an inch. She was a protector; even if Angela was an asshole of a witch who hurt her friends and disdained her mother, she wouldn't let anything get to her while she was weak - especially because her mother wanted to help her personally. They had known each other for a long time, there was certainly a lot more to their relationship than Fareeha knew about. Maybe her mother was planning on getting her well and then binding her for the things she'd done, who knew? She didn't; but she was asked to stay and guard Angela, so she would.

They stood in silence, the magic in the water reflecting on the stone walls and ceiling, making for a very nice effect. It would be boring just laying there, sure, but it wasn't all that different from all the others being a wolf in that forest. At least this one wasn't focused on her supposed personal growth.

\--

There was something to be said about Vishkar personnel, and even more so about the cultists among them: they were very well trained to deal with several scenarios, but remarkably bad dealing with things outside their book - something a time-jumping woman and a chaotic muse in a hardlight body certainly were.

The company had officially established a branch in the country earlier in the month, a day or two after Lena and Amélie's trip to Italy, under the home technology solutions branch. Symmetra was especially irked by that fact; illegal presence in a country was one thing when a company was profiting without paying the country its dues, and a completely different one when this same company established itself legally and could pay millions in taxes. They wouldn't be able to build a case on that anymore, and, by Symmetra's words, it would be much more difficult to weed them out, now that they had taken root.

They could still wreck havoc in their concealed labs, though, and that was exactly what they were doing throughout the month. Sombra hacked into their servers, got information and destroyed important parts of the system, Symmetra provided assistance with tech and cultist matters, Lena dealt with distortions in time and the generators that were causing them, and everybody punched guard personnel if needed, even though it made Symmetra deeply uncomfortable.

"You're my muse, aren't you supposed to be an artist, instead of a hacker?" Lena asked as Sombra typed furiously in a holo-keyboard, trying to gain them access to the safe chamber where the generator resided.

Sombra let out a derisive noise. "When Lovelace started the logic that would later be used in the first computers, I was there; when people started developing Apple and Microsoft, I was there; when the Internet was transitioning from a military tool to a global system, I was there. If you think art's only paint and dance and music, well, I hate to break it to you, but you're very wrong, Colibri."

"Wait, what?! You saw all this stuff?!"

"Sometimes I helped." It brought Sombra a lot of satisfaction to see Lena's jaw on the floor like that. She really didn't realize the extent of a muse's reach or how diverse their expertises could be, probably because her girlfriend was very particular when it came to those. "And just like magic… it's open!"

She wriggled her fingers in the air and the blast door parted open. Obviously it was a result of her hacking, but she just couldn't resist the theatrics.

The room was like all the others where they found generators exactly like the one on the central pedestal. If Lena dismantling the device mid-air with her powers weren't such a sight, Sombra probably wouldn't even bother going in, to be honest. Instead she had the great idea of recording the whole thing for Symmetra to see later, she was sure she'd appreciate such a beautiful and orderly thing.

Lena usually went quiet while she worked on the generator, and sometimes hummed a song or made exaggerated motions like she was in a disney movie dancing with the disassembling parts. In one case, chronal energy had blasted the room as soon as Lena interacted with the generator, sending her into what she later explained was a loose memory - and this time, it happened again.

The sky above was dark, with an uncountable number of stars dotted throughout. Thick snow covered the land, the pines all around her, the building - oh, there was a building! It looked official, but not like a military base. She walked towards it, the ghost sensation of stepping on fluffy snow weirding her out, as well as the deep cold she knew she should be feeling, but never really got to her skin. She walked towards the double doors of the entrance, and each step increased the absolutely creepy sensation someone had their eyes on her. When they were at a hand's reach, though, she blinked and saw herself on water. It was dark and she was sinking, but apparently she was still an intangible spectator; of what, she was yet to see.

Then something fell into the water in front of her, a creature of wings and talons with a humanoid body. It was a weird, grotesque even, and started to flail violently as it started to drown. Lena took an impulse stroke towards it like she would if she was really diving, but she couldn't quite reach the creature. Then it started to change; in the painful convulsions of drowning, it turned into a sort of giant bird monster. Lena should be able to reach it now, reason said it was a big creature and they must be getting close to the bottom.

Except they kept sinking, and Lena was always frustratingly close and far. Then it changed again - and this time, it was a little bird flailing about hopelessly, trying to get air in the middle of water

Lena felt like she had just lost all air herself. Could that be…?

It changed again. A woman. Ginger. Dying.

Lena panicked. She tried to get to her with all her strength, she called, she even tried to slow time so she could just touch her… Nothing worked. She saw her convulse and change faces, weaker and weaker, until the darkness consumed her entirely, a darkness where Lena wasn't able to follow.

When she came back to the present moment she was still screaming for Emily, shaking and crying with Sombra trying to "wake" her.

\--

It was a cold start of night in London, and Amélie was enjoying a cup of tea in the upper café in the Royal Opera House. Tea... She snickered to her cup. After those two years, it seemed she was getting the local habits, after all - but she’d be dead before Lena caught her red handed _enjoying_ British tea. No, Amélie would remain a firm advocate for weaker coffee in her eyes, because irking her lover was such good fun, she couldn't just stop doing it. In order for this to happen, though, Lena had to be there - which she still wasn't.

Amélie looked out the window and pursed her lips slightly. Lena was supposed to meet her about an hour ago, they were going to McCree’s together, but… Well. Now she was having tea alone, eating small croissants that in no way were better than the ones in her home country, and Lena? She was probably out there closing time rifts or fighting Vishkar with Sombra and Symmetra.

It wasn’t a problem she was with them, mind you, it was important work. The problem laid in the fact she seemed to _always_ be doing that now, to an irresponsible degree; she was using it as a clutch to remain sane in face of the endless wait, instead of coming clean to Amélie or seeing a professional. It worried Amélie, and if she was honest, it even hurt a bit. Couldn't they figure things out together, like always? What changed?

A sign of movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she found a small black spider climbing the window glass. It was quick, and probably scared of being in the open like that.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know?" 

The spider stopped and turned towards her, moving its pincers, but right after it resumed its frantic climb. Amélie kept watching it go until it disappeared in a crack on the wooden frame. She hoped she was going home, to her family… If spiders kept those, anyway. They always struck her as lonely types minding their business in their webs, and she wasn't all that fond of thinking of nests full of the little arachnids, to be honest. It didn't bother her as much now.

She checked her phone: no missed calls, no messages. She'd better stop with the stalling, finish her tea and go home.

"Amé! Oh love, I'm so sorry!"

She turned in time to see Lena hit her side on the table besides hers, make a pained face and curse under her breath, but she only stopped when she was sitting in front of Amélie. Her hair was sticking to her face, and there were scratches all over her right cheek, like she fell face first on tarmac. She smelled of blood and sweat; Amélie looked at her and couldn't hide her weariness.

"You need a bath." She observed.

"Yeah, I know, I just thought I should come already instead of detouring…"

"You shouldn't have bothered, actually. I just finished." 

"I, uh… Yeah." Lena's stomach growled audibly, and she blushed slightly as a response. "Do you mind if I--"

"By all means, order something." Amélie gestured towards the fixed menu on the wall behind the bar. "You didn't have lunch, did you?" By the guilty face Lena made, there was no need for a verbal answer.

"I ate a couple of granola bars!" She protested, but Amélie shook her head. "I... I was coming back from Sombra's on time, I swear! But then there was this rift I had to--"

"You had to?" Amélie cut. "Lena, we both know you're actively seeking them out." 

"They keep appearing, I can't just leave them there!"

"I know. But I also know you thrashed three Vishkar labs and their generators with them. The rifts can't be opening all that fast."

"They're… not, yeah. " She shrunk a bit in her chair, exposed like that. "But London's big, and who knows which ones I missed…"

"So, again: you're actively seeking them out." Amélie had that intense, unshakeable gaze, and it made Lena look anywhere else but back at her. "You know, you can talk to me about what's really bothering you. It'll be good to let it out." She put a hand over Lena's, who flipped hers and squeezed it.

"Im fine, Amé, really. I'm just having a little trouble fitting everything in its place."

Liar. Lena wore her feelings on her sleeve, and that weak smile, those sad eyes? She was trying to be strong but struggling to keep it together. Amélie would've been able to tell that even in the first months they knew each other, to be honest. She could point it out and prod more if she really wanted, but she was tired of a lot of small things at the moment. She didn't want to escalate things anymore; the night was already depressing enough as it was.

"I see... Well, order something, will you? I want you healthy and well fed."

Lens snickered. "Oh I'm definitely not gonna bother you with food problems."

Yes, Amélie knew that. She just worried about everything else, to be honest.

\--

It was the middle of the night and Amélie woke up with Baguette and Poulain running over her on the bed, playing with each other. She groaned and closed her eyes again, in hopes she'd fall back asleep quickly, and wriggled her way back towards Lena on the bed. Her warmth was always comforting… Except she wriggled some good distance and still didn't find her girlfriend. She sat up, turned the night lamp on, and thus confirmed: Lena's spot was empty, and it seemed to be so for a while, if the lack of warmth was any indicator.

The drowsiness evaporated instantly. Amélie put on a robe and got out of the bedroom, looking for Lena. Did Khronos call her to another mission? Did she go close rifts in the middle of the night, even if he didn't? As soon as she was out in the corridor she could see a faint light coming from Lena's work room, and she made her way there as silently as she could.

Lena was sitting on the floor and hugging her legs, muffling her crying like a child afraid of being caught. A pile of discarded sketches and art supplies littered the floor around her. 

"Lena?"

She jumped, startled, and as soon as she saw Amélie at the door she hid her face and tried to wipe the tears furiously. "Amé? W-what are you doing here, shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I could say the same to you." Amélie entered the room nonchalantly now that she'd announced herself, and kneeled besides Lena. "What's wrong, _chérie_?"

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry…" She was still looking away, curled up like a cornered kitten, even though everything gave away she was crying. Why did she think that was a problem?

Amélie took a lock of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear, lovingly. "No, it was the cats, but then I realized you weren't there. How could you expect me to have a good night of sleep without my lovely scruffy by my side? That wouldn't do." Lena managed a quick smile at the words, but soon all the sadness returned. She still wasn't looking, so Amélie lifted her chin gently and joined their foreheads. "It breaks my heart seeing you trying to hide things from me, Lena. What's the matter?"

Lena clearly suppressed a sob, she held her legs closer to her chest. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to be strong, I really am…!"

"You _are_ strong, _chérie_. That doesn't mean you have to deal with things alone. Isn't that what Emily tried to teach us both the first time, mm?"

There it was, the magic word. Lena cracked, hid her face on Amélie's chest and held her tight, the tears rolling freely now. 

"I feel so guilty, Amé! This wait is killing me, I gotta do something, I _gotta be useful_ \-- but I'm hurting you, I'm hurting myself, and I don't know what to do!" Lena's accent got thicker and her words faster because of the stress, Amélie almost couldn't understand her between the sobs. Luckily their years together helped a lot with that. "At least when she was a bird we knew she was safe, but now she's hurt and we can't even be there! We should've found a way to protect her from that Witch. We should've dissuaded her from fighting…"

"It was her choice to make, not ours. We voiced our concerns and… well… She's Emily. She set her mind to it. But please remember: she'll come back - Apollo said so, Khronos said so. That's what we have to hold onto now." Amélie talked on Lena's hair, rubbing her back in circles hoping to calm her. 

"But that's not only that, I…" She sobbed, and had to take a deep breath in order to be able to talk again. "I saw her. In the river. I-- I guess it was her memory? The generator took me there, I was dismantling it and god, she was suffering, she was drowning, and…" She couldn't finish the sentence, just cry.

"She'll come back, _chérie_. It's only temporary…" Amélie said that because she didn't really know what to say to that. She knew how empathetic Lena was, and seeing such a scene would break anyone. At least, what she said now was true; a little solace, in the face of their inability to help at the moment.

Lena held tight to her. "But when, Amé? How long will she suffer?"

"I don't know that. We don't even know if she's still suffering, or anything really. But we can stick together and wait. It's what she'd want of us." She planted a kiss on the top of her head.

Lena practically wailed in her arms. I've been awful to you these days…"

"I can forgive that if you promise me you're going to take better care of yourself from now on, and talk about your feelings."

"But I don't want to make you sadder… or depressed… You've come so far…"

"Oh, Lena…" Amélie kissed the top of her head again, rocking her gently. "I'm not an expensive crystal… I'm clearly a diamond, valuable and very hard to break." Lena let out a muffled chuckle, and it was a small victory on itself. "It's worse not knowing what's on your mind than knowing and working together to solve things. We share the load, see? And if it ever makes me sad, I have your arms to run to, and a good therapist to help. Have I not done that, time and time again?"

"I'm sorry…" She mumbled "It's just… We were both so sad. I thought I had to be strong for you, because those first days it was so difficult to cheer you up, I was afraid you'd spiral…" 

"You didn't let it happen, _chérie._ I put myself together because you didn't let me fall; I won't let you fall either."

Lena didn't say anything, she just held on and cried in her embrace until all that was left were numbness and random sobs. 

"I love you, Amé." She said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"I love you too. Do you want to go back to bed now?"

She nodded and started getting up slowly, with her body feeling like jelly due to the exhaustion from crying. She hoped wherever Emily was at the moment, she was having a better night...

\--

Terpsichore arrived at the margins of the river in a hurry, stopping short of Persephone to recompose herself and catch her breath before anything else. She came as fast as she could given the circumstances, and given the nature of the Underworld she couldn't just phase where she needed to be; she pretty much ran from the palace hall all the way to that specific point, and had anyone counted, they'd see her time was actually quite impressive.

Persephone half turned to look at her and immediately noticed her exhaustion couldn't be only because of running - she was the Muse of song and dance, exercise like that was probably nothing to her. "You look like a centaur ran over you."

"Try keeping things running non-stop with the current situation, and that's what happens." She gave her a weary smile, taking a couple of steps forward so she could have a better view of the river. "That light…"

"Yes, it's why I called you. Can you feel it?"

Terpsichore nodded, her eyes locked on the waters. Something glowed from deep inside, unbothered by the strong current. When she concentrated on it, she felt like running, discovering all the secrets, then swaying, learning something new, jumping and rolling, throwing herself in the air, convincing it to let her fly… The sensations changed quickly, like the source was too eager to pursue everything, always curious; always in movement. It was the type of energy a terpsichore had, but also the type of energy one could get nourishment from. It was odd.

"Should I reach for it…?" Terpsichote took a glance at Persephone, who shrugged.

"Go on. Worst case scenario, you'll find a bunch of forgotten memories."

Good to know. Terpsichore took a breath and focused inward, in her own self and her connection to her muses. She'd just try to tug at the severed link that held Emily, and see what happened.

Interestingly enough, she didn't even get to it. As soon as she expanded her influence the vibrant energy on the river converged towards it, intense enough to make her take a step back to regain balance.

 _Emily?,_ she called mentally, and all the imminence of movement that energy was instilling halted. Terpsichore didn't know what to make of it, but she definitely couldn't let it vanish. _It's okay, no one's going to hurt you here._ She gently expanded her influence a bit more, enough that it made Persephone start shifting on her feet. _Do you want to dance together?_

This time, it was Terpsichore who sent an impression towards the light: what it felt to hear music and let yourself be taken by it, swirling around without a care in the world. To her surprise, something came back: the perception of a voice humming. She checked her old connection to Emily again and it was still severed, she shouldn't be able to answer like that - but maybe it was a good thing she did.

Terpsichore smiled and started humming the same melody herself. It was simple, and she took simple, soft steps to the right, then to the left, waltzing on the ashen ground before the river. _Come_ , she said mentally, _there's much I have to show you._

A flaming white orb of light floated out of the river without disturbing its waters. It made a wide arch towards the women on the shore, and as it approached it spun and changed, turning into a small ethereal rabbit who jumped through the air with complete disregard for gravity. Terpsichore extended a hand up to caress it, but instead of leaning in or jumping away, it followed the movement and ascended in a small spiraling movement above her head, turning into a butterfly. It glided down in a wide spiral, and Terpsichore followed its movement spinning at the same slow pace, chuckling to herself. 

When the butterfly got near the ground it turned effortlessly into a ghostly centaur figure, stomping the ground playfully like a tap dancer - and this time it was Terpsichore who ran a wide circle around it, smiling, until she spun in her tracks and extended a hand. " _Would you--_ "

She didn't get to finish the thought, for the centaur turned into a serpent who slithered up her arm, and the moment they touched, Terpsichore felt the raw energy crash down against her one more time. Now it was deeply curious, prodding at everything she was and giving her the sense it was trying to understand what she was really made of behind all the forms she could take.

 _I am the embodiment of movement._ She thought. _You were part of me._

The serpent jumped from Terpsichore's arm and turned into a version of her made from white light, who held on to her extended hand. Terpsichore started spinning slowly, like in a medieval dance, and the copycat followed her lead.

There was acknowledgement on its part, but also confusion. Terpsichore's words and being resonated with it greatly, but it wasn't what it was looking for. Something was still missing.

The copy turned into a different woman: one with long hair, stunning eyes and a mysterious smile - and rapidly turned into yet another one, one of an easy grin, shining eyes and wild short hair. 

Terpsichore knew them. She immediately understood what was going on.

 _They're your home,_ she said.

A wave of enthusiastic concordance hit her, followed by expectation. It was almost childish, how pure it felt. Terpsichore felt like hugging her out of affection, but there was something else more interesting she could do at the moment. _I can show you, but you would get Emily's memories back. Do you want to be her again?_

It didn't take three seconds. For the first time, the answer appeared like a notion so clear in her mind it might as well be words: _I never stopped being her. I'm just different._

There was no doubt left, then. Terpsichore extended her the severed connection and she didn't hesitate to take it. It formed anew between them, and with it came the torrent of memories: from the cheering and cursing of the audience in the theater where she came to existence, to her adventures in the mortal world, to the last words her higher muse told her before letting her sink into the dark waters. She changed into every facet she had as she remembered those days, until the monstrous stymphalian bird and the unwanted harpy form. When the memories stopped flooding and all the echoes faded, there was so much pain and anger… But also determination and joy and love - lots and lots of love. Terpsichore could hear a clear, strong, rather angry voice through the connection, and it was definitely Emily's this time:

 _No one's_ _going to have power over my life again. I am my own, and I am whole._

And she severed her connection to Terpsichore.

_I choose my fights, and my masters._

But she offered her a different one, that served the same purpose. One both her and the Higher Muse could sever and remake if they wanted to, one made of mutual fondness and loyalty.

_I choose my face, and my lovers._

That ethereal harpy was consumed by its flaming white aura and what remained was someone physical: the ginger with ever-changing eyes who caused a hell of an effect in some lives and her own community a couple of years before.

_And I'd really like to go home._

Emily finally let the enormous amount of energy she had been channeling go, and it left like fire spreading in oil, except it swept over the rocky dark shore of the river and left tiny yellow flowers blooming all over the barren land - the kind she'd tuck on Lena's hair as a bird. Her strength also left her all at once, and Terpsichore had to rush to catch her safely before she fell to the floor.

She was so, so tired… But so happy. She could feel through her brand new connection that Terpsichore was, as well.

"Welcome back, Emily." Terpsichore hugged her. 

From the other shore of the river, a figure with a torch burning purple watched them, deeply intrigued. Persephone was analyzing the sudden blooming of flowers with great interest when she noticed them, raised an eyebrow and widened her smile.

"I think everyone here deserves a well-earned rest, now" She snapped her fingers, turning to the others. "It's not every day somebody walks out of the Lethe like that! C'mon, there's a room waiting."

The figure on the other side of the river vanished as suddenly as it appeared. It had seen enough.

\--

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks Rhitta for helping out! <3


End file.
